


The Fire of the Phoenix

by JustAnotherQueer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Voldemort Wins, F/M, Harry Potter's Daughter - Freeform, Horror/Adventure - Freeform, Muggle Segregation Camps, Muggle/Wizard conflict, Multi, Next Generation, Not Epilogue Compliant, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, The Next War, revolutions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 05:58:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 30,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18845044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAnotherQueer/pseuds/JustAnotherQueer
Summary: Harry Potter is dead. The chosen one has failed and what was once the United Kingdom has fallen into Voldemort's grasp. Under the Dark Lord's regime, Muggles, Half Bloods, and Purebloods are segregated into camps, and the Wizarding World left in cahos. Lily Prewett lives in Muggle camp 18, and desperately dreams to be free of the slum, to right the wrongs and fix the world. Little does she know, it's in her blood. AU!





	1. One- Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all, I've decided to upload this old fic that I wrote back in 2012, and give it a spot on this archive. It was the first one I ever wrote ever, for that reason it has a special place in my heart. The reason I'm even posting it in the first place is that I was shocked to get an email that someone had favorited it back on FanFiction.net. and I think it should be avabiable for anyone who stumbles on to it. I really don't know if this will ever go anywhere, I can't make any promises either way, this story still rattles around in my head from time to time and I'd like to think that after a few years, I still might have something to add to it. (The most I might do is edit it a little, though if I ever did anything, I'd likely make some changes) I would appricate any kudos or comments, but I'm not expecting anything, I just wanted to give this fic a place to live. Thanks for even clicking on the title!!

"Come on Ginny! Just… a bit… _further!"_ Harry Potter's voice was strained, and he had a death grip on Ginny's hand. Red hair fell in Ginny's face, and from the corner of her eye, she could see Harry push his raven colored hair from his, revealing the lighting bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. The sounds of the Hogwarts battle reached their ears as they half ran, half crawled up a steep hill leading from the Forbidden Forest where they had barely escaped their deaths.

Curses lit up the air like Fred and George's fireworks. All different colors, but mainly green. Screams and sobs filled the air and chilled Ginny right to the bone. Harry had refused to turn himself in at midnight, and now the Dark Lord was attacking greater than ever. They were outnumbered at the beginning, and now their numbers only continued to go down. In the chaos of the battle, Ginny had been abducted and dragged to the Forbidden Forest where the Death Eaters predicted Harry would come for her. And he did. He always did. They had managed to escape and now they were running for their lives, toward the Great Hall. And from the state that Hogwarts was in, Voldemort was winning.

They sprinted up the marble staircase, Harry supporting a limp. All around them curses sailed through the air, and spells were screamed into the night sky. They burst through what once were the double doors of the Great Hall.

"Where are Ron and Hermione?" Ginny's voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of screams.

"I dunno." Harry tried to look at ease, probably so he wouldn't scare Ginny, but his body language gave him away. From the tightness of his shoulders, the way he was clutching a stitch in his side, the way he put all this weight on his good leg, and the way his emerald green eyes darted around the room in panic betrayed him. "We'll find them though Ginny don't worry." The bruises and cuts stood out on his face, and Ginny imagined she couldn't look much better.

"HARRY! GINNY!" They turned to see Hermione clutching Ron's hand and firing curses with her other as they made their way to them. Ginny's face relaxed into the closest smile she'd had in months, but it quickly evaporated into an expression of horror as a robed figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere and seized Ron around the neck.

It was all over in a split second.

Hermione's scream of fear for Ron was lost over the screams and shouts of others as a green jet of light flew towards her. The force of it blasted her and a bystander off their feet and into the wall behind them. She slid down it, and slumped at the bottom, face white, and unmoving.

Harry and Ginny's screams mingled together to become one, "HERMIONE!" Ginny could feel salty tears stinging the cuts on her face as her body shook with sobs. The robed figure threw back his hood, revealing the pale snakelike face of Lord Voldemort.

Ginny's breath caught in her throat. A wave of pure horror washed over her as the Dark Lord raised his wand and leveled it at Ron's throat. Voldemort had obviously given orders for his Death Eaters to stop fighting, because now, they lined up behind him; some masked and some not. She saw a very pale looking Draco Malfoy standing next to his mother and father, Bellatrix Lestrange standing next to her sister, staring at Ginny with a cruel inane smile on her lips and cowering in the corner was Wormtail. Voldemort's snake swam through the air in an orange glowing sphere over their heads.

The defenders of Hogwarts, The Order of the Phoenix, and Dumbledore's Army assembled themselves silently behind Harry and Ginny. The Dark Lord and Harry Potter simply stared at each other, Ron still caught in Voldemort's grip, daring not to struggle. The Dark Lord finally spoke.

"Give up Harry. There's nowhere left to run." Voldemort's voice was chilling and swept over the great hall like a freezing wind.

Harry just stood, and said nothing.

Voldemort smiled. "You know it's true, don't you Potter?" Bellatrix cackled. "Just give up. You fought gallantly, but you are outnumbered and wounded. Enough have died, I just killed your friend, the Mudblood," Ginny glanced over to where Hermione's body still lay. "How many more have to die Potter? Just give up Harry. You have no one. You have lost everything. Give up."

Harry found his voice although it wavered; the spoken, defiant word seemed to echo over the grounds of Hogwarts. "Never." The defenders, the Order, and the DA cheered.

Voldemort smiled, like this answer pleased him. He shifted his gaze to the left of Harry, and Ginny thought for a moment he was staring at her, but the red-eyed gaze swept over and behind her. For some reason, this scared Ginny more than The Dark Lord looking at her. Just as her eyes meet Harry's and shared a look of fear and apprehension, the Dark Lord nodded his head and strong arms wrapped around her and the feeling of being shoved into a tight rubber tube overtook her, and for a few seconds, she couldn't breathe.

Then with a loud _CRACK_ she appeared on the other side of the room. Her knees slammed into the stone ground with enough force to make her teeth rattle. Before she could gather her wits, she was dragged on her feet by her hair, and a wand was pressed to her throat.

"Ginny!" Harry's voice was thick with fear, his green eyes wide. Ginny saw her parents hold on to each other more tightly. Bill and Charlie glowered while Fleur stood next to Percy, tears running down her face, and next to them the Twins were looking murderous.

"It's alright Harry," Ginny tried to keep fear out of her voice, "don't listen-"

" _Silenco!"_ The traitor that was holding her suddenly snarled, and Ginny suddenly found herself unable to speak. She caught Harry's eyes again, and tried without words to say that everything would be fine, and not to give up.

He silently searched her eyes. His eyes shone with desperation and helplessness. He had the eyes of a man with his back to a wall. He couldn't, _wouldn't,_ allow his best friend, no _his brother_ , and the one girl he truly loved be killed in front of his eyes.

Harry closed his eyes in defeat. _No! Oh Merlin no!_ Ginny thought, _Please Harry no! No, no, no, no, no!_

Harry opened his eyes at last, and green eyes meet scarlet. Slowly Harry raised his wand, the Death Eaters bristled, ready to attack, and Ginny felt a mixture of fear and hope rise within her.

But then…

Harry seemed to move in slow motion. He drew his wand arm back, and with the skills of a Quidditch player, threw his wand through the air to the Death Eaters. The wand flew through the air with a kind of grace and seemed to catch every eye. It spiraled over the heads of the crowd and hit the ground then slowly clattered to a stop at Ginny's feet.

_No._

The hall went deathly silent, all of the defenders of Hogwarts, all of the Order, and all of the DA stared first at the fallen wand, then at the broken form of Harry Potter in the worst expressions of defeat ever seen.

"Harry! No mate, don't do this!" Voldemort passed a struggling screaming Ron over to another Death Eater who dragged him out of the hall. Shortly after there was a flash of green and Ron's protests were cut off along with the sound of a body hitting the ground. Mrs. Weasley screamed and her sobs echoed throughout the hall.

Ginny tried to scream, but the silencing charm was still on her. She struggled against her captor mouthing Ron's name, with no effect. Harry's face was etched with pain and tears ran down his face.

He looked at Ginny. "I had to; I'm _so_ sorry Ginny I had to." His eyes begged her to understand. "We couldn't win, I am so sorry." Tears were again running down his face. "I'll die for you Ginny. You and everyone else, no one else can be hurt." His face was pitiful, covered in bruises, cuts and tears. "No one else will die for me Ginny. _No one."_

Ginny shook her head and tried so hard to tell him that this was wrong. That they could still win, but the Dark Lord stepped forward.

The dark Lord simply looked at him, as if seeing him for the first time. He didn't give a victory speech, didn't torture him, or even laugh. He simply said, "Harry Potter. The boy who lived."

Then the Dark Lord raised his wand and muttered the two words Ginny only heard in nightmares.

" _Avada Kedavra!"_

Just before the green light left Voldemort's wand, Harry looked at her, green eyes met brown, and he said, "Ginny Weasley I love-"

But then the killing curse hit him directly in the chest and he crumpled on the ground, defeated.

Dead.

She distantly heard her mother's anguished wails, along with Lupin and Tonks' calls for Harry. It' wasn't real. Wasn't happening. But then, it hit her.

It was happening. And it was very real.

As the pain and anguish built up inside her, so powerful it shattered the silencing charm, and as her scream echoed throughout the halls and grounds of Hogwarts, drowning out the cries of her friends and family, she thought she heard Harry's voice.

_Stay safe._


	2. The Camp

Lily Prewett was eleven years old. She stood on street number 25 in Muggle Camp number 18. Lily had dark black hair, brown eyes, pale skin and skinny limbs. She was dressed in rags and her black hair would have fallen past her shoulders if it wasn't matted like everyone else's. She hadn't any idea where her black hair had come from, seeing as her mum had the most beautiful red hair she'd ever seen, her eyes and face came from her mother though.

She stood in up to her ankles in mud, soaked to the bone because of the rain coming down in buckets. She looked up at the green dome that covered the entire camp, a Huge Dark mark floating over its center. A green column of light radiated from the camp's center and shot towards the sky, stretching out at the top to create the dome that covered them all. She could barely see the gray storm clouds through the green web-like force field. Even if it had been shining, Lily would have been barely able to see the sun anyway. The dome was enchanted so that when the sun did shine, barely any of it got through, keeping the camp in constant shadow.

The streets were usually dirt, except in the center where the Death Eaters lived. It had been raining nonstop for days, turning the dirt roads to mud. The small, cramped, gray, dirty houses that lined the streets were locked and bored up for the night along with the few shops. The rain poured into the sewers and the streets were lined with garbage and the occasional body. People dressed in rags with matted hair hurried across the streets and into their homes before bolting the door. It was drawing close to the curfew and she had to move fast if she wanted to make it home in time.

She started down the street, shivering, her bare feet squishing in the mud. Hardly anyone could afford coats and trainers. She ran as stealthily as she could, ducking behind dead trees and bushes as she went. It was unlikely that patrolling Death Eaters would be out in weather like this, but other gangs of kids might be patrolling the streets. She was unlikely to meet any though, this was her turf.

She pulled the thin shirt she wore closer to her. In her pants pocket was all the money she had saved up, digging graves, helping collect the dead, and other gruesome tasks. It had been worth it though; she now had around two hundred pounds she'd worked for nonstop for a little over a year. As she neared the Black Market, she heard voices and quickly dove behind a bush.

"-God 'elp us, Black Parade day is drawin' nearer." Said a voice. Lily was relieved to find it wasn't a Death Eater, just another Muggle.

"My eldest died because of that stinkin' day las' year," another voice said, he spat, "always the wors' day o' the year. Why is it celebrated by them Death Eaters again?"

"Eh. Killed some bloke, Dark Lord won the war, somethin' like that."

"Poor sod. Better replace the lock on the door, remember wot happened last time-?"

The voices faded as the moved down the road and Lily crept out of her hiding place.  _ Damn! Forgot 'bout the Black Parade! When is it again?  _ The Black Parade was the worst day of the year. Every year the Death Eaters would parade the streets in their black cloaks and hoods, wreaking havoc and killing innocent people. She'd have to prepare for that. Everyone needed to.

She finally made it to the entrance of the Black Market. She went into an abandoned house, the walls thick with grime and rubbish from floor to ceiling, and headed down the hall to the bathroom.

The bathroom was disgusting, covered in mold and grime. She took a second to look in the cracked mirror. Her hair was filthy and matted; she was covered in mud and had large splotches of it on her face. She tried to rub it off, but somehow made it worse. Her feet were so covered in mud; it looked like she was wearing brown socks. She sighed into the mirror and her breath clouded it up. Just as she turned around, hands shifted the toilet aside, revealing a hole, and out of it crawled a blonde man.

The blonde man reached down, pulled a bag out of the hole, and set it on the bathroom ground and was about to climb out when he spotted Lily. He jumped and gasped, "Bloody hell Lily! Thought you were a Death Eater for crying out loud!"

"Sorry Mr. Dursley. Didn't mean to, I was jus' about to go down is all." She said. Dudley Dursley was a good friend of her mum's, one of her only friends really. He lived with his wife and child, one of Lily's friends, Jack. Dudley's mum and dad lived next door to him. Lily had met Dudley's parents once and didn't much like them.

"Yes well, you had better hurry up. Almost curfew." He said as he climbed out of the hole.

"Yes Mr. Dursley." She moved to go down the hole, but he called her back.

"Do me a favor and tell your mother I said hello would you?" he asked.

"Sure will. Tell Jack I say hullo too."

"I will!" He called as he disappeared through the door.

When he had disappeared through the door, Lily lowered herself into the hole, and then dragged the toilet over it, extinguishing what little light there was left.

In the dark, she groped for the ladder rungs sticking out of the wall and slowly made her way down. As she descended, soft light shown beneath her and when she dropped down from the ladder her eyes had been so accustomed to the dark that even the soft light stung her eyes.

After her eyes adjusted she peered around the familiar underground room. There were shelves stacked from floor to ceiling, creating the feeling that you were in a maze. On all the shelves were clothes, food, seeds, and other random items. In the center of it all, an old man stood hunched over the center, scribbling something furiously.

The man's name was John, but because of his appearance, people tended to call him the Barn Owl. On his face sat huge thick glasses, behind which peered sad dark brown eyes, magnified to twice their normal size. The little hair he had on his head was white and stuck up at odd angles like feathers and his wrinkled hands gave the impression of a bird's claws.

She approached the counter and Owl looked up from his writing. "Lily! Wonderful to see you, haven't been down here in awhile."

"Hullo Owl, sorry I've been busy."

He gave a wheezy laugh and peered at her from behind the huge spectacles. "Busy huh?" He smiled, showing several missing teeth. "Busy dropping dung bombs in Death Eater's house windows with that group of yours?"

She blushed. "No!"

He laughed again, "It's quite alright." He looked at her and waged his finger in a parental way. "Just you be careful young missy. Your mother would have a heart failure if she found out."

"I know, but I'm always careful!" she protested "Never got caught except for one time, and that time I didn't do nothin'! I was just making sure Serena didn't get hurt."

"I know." He looked at her again. "You are too brave and too kind for your own good missy. You can save everyone."

Lily smirked. "I can try."

"Humph. I know you will." He gave her a stern look. "But don't forget about saving yourself too, alight?"

Lily shrugged, "Okay."

"Good. Now!" he clapped his hands together, "Enough mindless chatter, what can I get for you today?" he asked politely.

Lily's eyes hungrily roamed over the food section. "Can I have that hot loaf of bread please? And meat? And some type of vegetable?" her stomach snarled, "Oh! And some fruit? An apple?"

"Slow down, slow down! You'll give yourself a heart attack. Alright, anything else?"

"Yeah! Some of that broth." She thought for a moment. "Got anything special?"

Owl gave her another toothless grin. "Sure do." He winked and reached under the counter. He rummaged around for a bit, saying, "Got these from a friend of mine, very valuable." He finally found what it was he was looking for and placed on the counter a Medical Kit, and an old pocket watch.

Lily's eyes went huge. "Wow," she whispered in an awed voice. It was  _ extremely  _ rare to find a Medical Kit. And even rarer to find an actual watch. No one in the camp was allowed to tell time, read, or write; but her mother had taught her at a young age.

Lily's hands gently glided over the silver surface of the pocket watch. "Does it work?"

"Sure does," said Owl. He popped open the lid to show the face of the clock, and the small delicate hands behind the glass. "Go on, hold it up to your ear, you can hear the clockwork."

She did. Inside she heard a small ticking noise, like a little heart, and could hear the gears turning. She closed the lid and looked at the cover. Engraved on its front was a beautiful detailed picture of a bird with its wings spread wide. The bird was surrounded by fire and below it was the initials O.O.T.P. "What's O.O.T.P.?" she asked Owl.

"No idea." He replied. "Name of the last person who owned it I suppose."

She set it down on the counter. "How much for all this?" she felt a prickle of unease settle in her stomach. What if she didn't have enough? This was valuable stuff.

"For you, why don't we make it 100 pounds?"

Lily blinked in surprise, "That's all?"

"Sure." He smiled again, "These are hard times, you need all of this, and I got more money in this camp than anyone. Save the Death Eaters. Take it, and tell your mum I said hullo, would you?"

She set the money on the counter. "Thanks Owl," she said, taking the bag of things she'd bought. "An' I'll tell Mum you said hello."

"Right," he nodded at her, "Best hurry now, you've got fifteen minutes."

"Thanks again Barn Owl!" Lily called as she made her way up the ladder with her new belongings. She couldn't believe her luck. Food! And medical supplies! She pushed the toilet out of the way and placed the bag on the bathroom floor, then hauled herself out of the hole.

As she made her way home, she thought about the watch. She'd never wanted anything more in her life. She knew her mother would either keep it in a drawer or sell it for more money. Lily couldn't let that happen, and before she could stop it, a thought wormed its way into her mind.  _ You could just keep it you know,  _ she thought,  _ what harm could it do really? You do so much for Mum anyway. Just let yourself have this one thing. _

She came up to the housing building. It was a gray gigantic square of a building and housed about a hundred people. Lily and her mother were lucky enough to have a flat with a small window. As Lily stood on the doorstep of the building under the awning, protected from the pouring rain, she took out the watch.

She rubbed her thumb along the edges. She felt ashamed. She really shouldn't keep something this wonderful from her mother, but she couldn't imagine what her mother would need it for. For her mother, hours, days, months, years… they all blended together. For her mother, it was all one long day. Besides, Lily knew she had made up her mind as soon as she laid her eyes on it. It was hers.

She stashed it in her pocket and hurried inside, shutting the door behind her. In front of her lay a hallway that stretched down the building and to her left was a worn staircase that creaked. She and her mother lived on the second floor, flat number 55.

She hurried up the stairs, her arms full and made her way down the filthy hallway to her flat. She set the bag down by the door, and took a key from a chain on her neck and unlocked the door. She set the bag down inside. "Mum! Mum I'm home!" she didn't need to call all that loud. The place was tiny. The living room, dining area, and kitchen were all combined into one small room, a hallway led to Lily's and her mother's bedrooms, at the end of it was the bathroom.

She had to giver her mother credit, the place was clean. Most homes were filthy, but somehow her mum always managed to keep it tidy. "Lily? Oh thank God you're home!" Lily's mother, Ginevra Prewett, came around the corner of the hall and scooped her into a gigantic hug, "I've been so worried! You were almost late for curfew!" she pulled back and looked at Lily, "You're soaked to the bone."

"I'm fine Mum," Ginevra had long red hair that almost reached her waist and brown eyes that were only warm when she looked at Lily. Her mother was a strong woman, stronger than most Lily knew, but when she thought Lily wasn't looking or was asleep, Lily could hear her sobbing.

There was no Mr. Prewett. Lily had never known her father, and didn't know what had happened to him. Whenever she would ask a question about him, her mother would break down in tears. Lily learned to stop asking. She was all her mother had now and often for no reason Ginevra would hold her close and mummer, "What would I ever do without you?" Lily knew she had to protect her mother. Not only from the outside world, but from herself too. Sometimes, her mother would look at her and say, "Everything I did Lily, it was to keep you safe." Lily didn't know what she meant but went with it anyway.

Ginevra would often sit at the table, and stare into nothing, tears running down her face. Whenever Lily asked what, or who, she was thinking of, she would reply with "Just past memories. No one really. Everything is just fine." And for a while, it was. But then reality set in.

Lily returned to the present, and gently pulled out of her mother's hug. "I'm sorry I was almost late," she broke into a smile, "but I had to stop and get these." She picked up the bag and set it on the counter.

She took out the loaf of bread, the chicken, some broccoli and celery, the broth, the apples, and lastly the Medical Kit. Her mother's eyes grew huge. "Lily," she breathed, "How-?"

"I worked." Lily placed the remaining hundred pounds on the counter. "That's wot's left."

"Oh Lily." Ginevra looked at her sadly, "You shouldn't have had to do this."

Lily shrugged. "I didn't mind Mum, honestly."

"You still shouldn't have had to." A tear slid down her pale cheek and she wiped it away impatiently. She collected the food in her arms. "The bread's still hot, we'll have a feast." She gave a sad smile. "Go put that Kit in the bathroom cupboard would you dear?"

Lily took the kit and made her way down the hall. The apartment was very plain, no pictures, no toys, no real possessions. She entered the bathroom, and put the kit under the sink. She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror again. She always did that for some reason. Even when she was small. Her mother always joked that she was vain, but that wasn't it. Whenever Lily looked in a mirror, she always felt that something was  _ wrong  _ with her reflection. That it wasn't quite right.

Lily shook her head to clear it, and turned to go help her mother with dinner. But as she turned, out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw her eyes turn an emerald green. But when she quickly turned her head to look again, they were the same color brown she'd had for as long as she could remember.

Just a trick of the eye.


	3. The Group

When Lily awoke the next day she crawled out of her cot and immediately went to the window. It was no longer raining, and the sun was trying it's best to shine through the dome that kept them all imprisoned within the camp.

"Mum! I'm going out; I'll be back before curfew!" Lily called as she reached under her cot and pulled out two large folded pieces of paper that were rumpled and slightly covered in dirt.

She heard her mother call from the bathroom, "Stay safe!" Lily never really understood why her mother showered everyday. The water was always cold and would pour out flecks of rust and dirt. You'd do better standing in the rain starkers.

"I will!" she called as she reached the door. She ran out the door and flew down the hallway, thundering down the old staircase, making it scream in protest.

When she got outside, the roads were still mud. It would take a few days for them to return to dirt. People were going about their daily business, shoulders hunched, head down, no eye contact.

Stopping at the side of the road, she filled her pockets with rocks then ran behind the building where no one could see her and unfolded the first piece of paper. Fully unfolded, she let her eyes roam over the map of Muggle Camp 18.

She had fully completed the map last year. Lily had an artistic talent that she had gotten from her mother, and when she and her friends kept getting lost in the camp; she decided to draw a map.

The map was actually multiple pieces of parchment taped together to form it. Lily had never been prouder of anything in her life. It was very detailed, from the fire breathing dragon in the dead center of the camp protecting the source of magic that powered the dome, to the pit filled with spikes that surrounded the whole camp, preventing anyone from reaching the edges of the dome and digging under.

She had it all in there. Every house, every tree, every building, even the graveyard that had long since been filled up. She had been everywhere. She had a second map of the sewers, but didn't pull it out. She hoped she wouldn't need it, inwardly she shuddered.

She scanned the map, looking for something specific. When she found it, she quickly folded up the map and darted out into the streets. She weaved through the crowds of people, started towards her destination; the end of street number 20.

She had to be careful when she was on street number 21; her group had lost the street to a rivaling group of kids a few weeks ago. But luckily, no one was patrolling. When she was at the end of street number 21, and about to cross to street number 20, she saw them.

Dressed in dark black cloaks and wearing silver skull masks, a group of five Death Eaters wandered the streets, keeping watch and attacking the helpless. Lily quickly looked around for something to hide behind, but all the houses were grouped together so that even someone as skinny as Lily couldn't squeeze between them. She couldn't possibly fight, she wasn't armed with anything but rocks and one left over dung bomb she'd bought from the Market. She looked around desperately for a bush, a tree,  _ anything _ ; but there was nothing. She did the only thing she could think of.

Just before the Death Eaters rounded the corner, Lily dropped to the ground at the edge of the road. It was not uncommon for a body or two to be scattered in the streets, and she hoped that the Death Eaters would pay her no mind.

The Death Eaters came around the corner, laughing. Lily resisted the urge to open her eyes. It felt wrong to have her eyes closed with Death Eaters so near. They were close to her now; she could smell the chicken legs that they were eating as they neared her. Just as they were about to pass her, Lily heard a door open, them slam shut. A voice rang out to the Death Eaters, "My wife! What have you done with her you bloody bastards! I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU'VE HURT HER!"

There was the sound of laughter from the Death Eaters and one of them asked a companion, "Didn't we kill a woman a few nights ago on this street? Was right 'round 'ere wasn't it?" he laughed "Filthy Muggle! Deserved no less!"

There came an outraged cry from the man who had lost his wife. There was the sound of running feet, and then a shout, a Death Eater cursed,  _ "Avada Kedavra!"  _ the insides of Lily's eyelids flashed green and there was the sound of a body falling to the ground. The Death Eaters laughed and spat on the fallen man. "Filth!" they laughed again as they continued with their rounds.

Lily waited until the sound of their laughter faded away. Slowly she got up, and walked over to the dead man. He was lying face down in the mud, and Lily gently turned him over and wiped the mud from his face. She did not know him, and did not feel too shaken by his death. It was all too common around the camp. However, she did feel a mixture of sorrow and anger. An innocent man who loved his wife had been slaughtered in cold blood. She closed his eyes and dragged him out of the road. The death cart would come for him later.

Just as she was about to start her walk to street number 20, she heard a voice. "Lily!"

Lily almost collapsed in fright. "Oliver! You prat! Thought you was a Death Eater!" Lily's best friend Oliver ran up to her, splattering mud as he went. He stopped in front of her and grinned. His two front teeth were missing and is red hair stood up on his head like a startled bird's feathers. His face was covered in freckles. "I was jus' goin' to the tree. There's a meeting in the hole."

"I know, just like after every storm." He looked at her with squinted eyes, "Why you all covered in mud?"

"Had to keep away from the Death Eaters." She said, as they continued on their way balancing on the curb as they went, trying to shove each other off.

"Yeah, had to steer clear of 'em too." He shuddered, "I was on street 19. Had to go down to the sewers." His face turned a light shade of green.

"Lord! The  _ sewers?"  _ Lily had been down there several times to draw the map for the sewers and detested it. She was very glad she had a strong stomach. The sewers were filled, not only with the feces of the camp, but with dead bodies that the Death Eaters were too lazy to dig a grave for. It was one of the worst places imaginable, but Lily needed the sewer map. The sewers stretched under the whole camp, and even connected to other camp's sewers, but those exits were covered by bars. The sewers did come in handy though, opening up to every street so that if she missed curfew, she could still get home.

Oliver shuddered again. "Don't know 'ow you do it." He shoved her again. "You're barmy you are. Cracked!" He grinned. "Can't be down there for more than a minute. Sewer rat!" She laughed and shoved him back.

She shrugged, but inside her stomach crawled. "Comes in handy sometimes. Wot if you miss curfew?"

"Then hide out under a bush, in an empty house, or try to make it to the tree." He said. "I  _ hate _ it down there. An' besides you know how my parents are Lil."

"Yeah." Oliver had many siblings; he was number six in a family of ten. His parents paid him no mind. He took care of himself and only went home for shelter on rainy nights or if he was close by and curfew was near.

They neared a gigantic long dead tree, with roots spiraling in and out of the earth for at least ten feet. As Lily and Oliver neared it, a dead bush at its base rustled and a dirty kid with blonde hair poked his head out.

"Jack!" Oliver's voice rang out, "Haven't seen you in ages!"

Jack's head grinned and said, "Hurry up! You prats are the last ones!" his head disappeared into the bush.

Oliver laughed and got down on his hands and knees, crawled forward, and disappeared into the bush. Lily followed his lead and felt the branches tug at her hair and skin. She crawled downward, into a hole under the tree. It opened up to a rather large space, big enough to hold three large adults. Now however it held six dirty kids. Lily, Serena, Amy, Jack, Oliver, and Cole.

This was the group. Lily was the unofficial leader; they constantly went around annoying Death Eaters by throwing dung bombs in their houses or pelting them with rocks from the rooftops. It wasn't very effective and didn't have much of a purpose, but it was the only way they knew of to fight back.

The hole, (as they called it) was a pit with the walls and ceiling made entirely of dirt. Roots protruded from the walls and hung from the ceiling and in the candle light cast flickering shadows on the walls. They all clustered around the crate placed in the center, and on it Lily spread out the map. "Right, last time we hit this house 'ere," she pointed to a very fancy nice house near the center of the camp next to the giant water tower, "so this week we should hit a house on another street. That way, they won't be suspecting."

"Yeah," said Serena, "while I was on my way 'ere I 'eard some Death Eaters talkin'. They said that they was expecting us, and I think they was on that same street."

"Best be careful then." Amy said.

"But wot are we gonna hit 'em with?" Cole asked, "Used up all my dung bombs last time."

"Yeah only got one left." Lily said.

Jack asked, "Rocks then?"

"I suppose." Oliver said, "I jus' remembered!" he pulled the map closer to him and pointed at street number 21. "We need to get the street back. I 'eard that the group who stole it lost their leader."

"How?" asked Cole.

"Died." Oliver said gravely. There was a momentary silence for the dead leader. Lily had fought her many times; she had been a worthy opponent, tall and skinny with matted blonde hair and blue eyes. Oliver cleared his throat, "But we still gotta get the street back. And with the leader gone, they'll be in a panic. Best chance we've got."

Lily nodded in agreement. "Is the spare map still in the crate?" Oliver had drawn a copy of Lily's map; however he wasn't the best artist. It hardly mattered though everything was still there.

"Yes," said Amy, "haven't moved it." Lily nodded again.

"So," Serena clapped her hands together, "no time like the present eh?"

Jack nodded and lifted the top of the crate. It was filled with rocks, bottles of water, strips of dried meat, and the spare maps. There were pieces of rope with rocks tied to the ends that were now being passed out by Amy. Lily took one when it was handed to her and stood up in the small hole, her head only inches from the ceiling. Untangling a hanging root from her matted hair she said, "Come on, we've got a street to reclaim."

The group let out a war cry and rushed out of the tree. Street number 20 was empty of Death Eaters so they crossed it easily. When they entered street number 21 they took their fighting stance. Lily was in the front, flanked by Oliver and Jack, behind them were Cole and Serena and the smallest, Amy, in the center. They were lucky; the group who had stolen the street was gathered not far off.

As Lily and her group neared, a girl looked up and alerted the rest of her friends. All groups had the same basic motives, capture streets, protect territory, and fight Death Eaters. This group had been the main rival of Lily's but now that their leader was dead she doubted that they would be much trouble after today.

The rival group assembled. This time though instead of the skinny blonde she usually faced, Lily was looking at a short girl with brown hair and dark colored eyes that promised a fight. The new leader raised her arm, ready to throw the rock clutched in her hand. The rest of her group followed suite, but they all had a confused panic in their eyes.

Lily started twirling her bit of rope, her friends copying her. The rivals' eyes went wide with alarm at the sight of the new weapon. Lily took a rock from her pocket and hurled it at a young red-headed girl with skinny limbs.

They responded immediately, hurling stones into Lily's group. Lily felt some stones hit her body and felt the sting of their impact. She let out a war cry and ran towards the rivals, her group on her heels.

Lily ran right for the new leader and swung her bit of rope so the rock connected with her side. The girl landed a stinging punch to the side of her face. Lily responded by punching her in the gut.

Lily could see her friends from the corner of her eye; Amy had won her fight with the skinny red-head who was now running down the street with a split lip. Lily's other friends were winning and she saw Amy help Serena with her fight against the girl who had spotted them.

A kick to her shin brought Lily back to her fight with a gasp of pain. She raised her fist and was about to deliver a punch that would break the other girl's nose when someone screamed.

It wasn't a scream of pain, but a scream of fear and alarm. Lily snapped her head around to look and saw one of the rival group members who had been fighting Serena pointing at something behind Lily and screaming as loud as she could.

Lily turned around and froze. A group of ten or more Death Eaters was right in front of her only ten feet away. They each had a cruel smile on their lips and a deadly glint in their eyes, the only things visible under their masks. Lily screamed, "RUN!"

Everyone scattered in different directions and to different locations. The Death Eaters ran after them giving shouts of laughter. Lily ran as fast as she could, nearly slipping in the mud. She could hear a Death Eater behind her and ran faster fear coursing through her.

She rounded a corner and collided with someone. She screamed and lashed out. "Get off! Get off!"

"Lily you prat! It's me!"

"Oliver?"

"Yeah, now come on! We've got to-"a jet of green light flew over their heads, missing Lily's head by mere inches. She screamed again and Oliver grabbed her hand and together they ran.

They weaved in and out of trees, between houses, and through streets but still the Death Eater gained. They had just reached street number 25 when Oliver stumbled.

Lily slowed and griped his hands; the Death Eater was about fifteen feet away. Oliver's eyes locked with hers and the Death Eater stopped and screamed,  _ "Avada Kedavra!" _

Oliver's grip on her hands slackened, and he fell to the ground with a soft thump and the squish of mud. "NO!" Lily screamed and threw the rope with the rock at the end with great care and it connected with the side of the Death Eater's head, knocking him out.

"Oliver! Oliver  _ please-"  _ sobs cut off her words and she hugged Oliver's body to her, screaming. "NO OLIVER!  _ OLIVER!"  _ she screamed till her throat was raw and she was sobbing so hard her body heaved. Gently, tears streaming down her face, she cleared the mud from his face and closed his eyes.

"Oi! Wot's goin on 'ere?" a twig snapped and Lily's head flew up. The Death Eater she had knocked out had woke. His mask was off and he surveyed the scene before him with a predator's eyes. He was young, and had a pimply face.

Lily felt a wave of fear wash over her body, making her hair's stand on end. As gently as she could, she laid Oliver on the ground, and then she ran.

Tears clouded her vision as she ran blindly down the street. She could no longer hear the Death Eater behind her so she ran to her flat blindly knocking into people.

She flew into her flat screaming, "Mum! Mummy!" through her tears. She nearly collapsed on the ground. She couldn't believe it, her best friend was gone.

Her mother sprung up from the table, took one look at her mud covered, beaten form and ran to her and engulfed her in a hug. "Lily! Lily dear what's wrong? What's happened?"

Lily clung to her mother and sobbed. "They killed him! They killed him!"

Ginevra hugged her tighter. "Who dear? Who?"

"Ol-Oliver! He's dead!" Ginevra tried to sooth her by whispering comforting words in her ear, but Lily wasn't listening.

She thought about Oliver. How he wouldn't even get buried properly. She couldn't carry him without risking being killed by the Death Eater and now he would end up in the sewers he hated so much, mixed with the countless other unknown bodies that rotted there. No one would know, or even care, that he was dead. She hated the thought of his parents not knowing or caring what had become of their son. He was killed for no reason other than the Death Eaters thought it was fun.

Lily tore free of her mother's embrace screaming, "I HATE THEM!" Ginevra watched with sad eyes as Lily punched the wall, ignoring the pain, "They think we're worthless animals! Well we're not and I'm  _ tired _ of it! Throwing rocks and dung bombs does  _ nothing _ ! It's childish and  _ stupid!" _ she looked at her mother "I wish I could do something!  _ Anything! _ It's not fair! They'll all have a good laugh about it and then I'm gonna have to go on living in this hell hole while my friends are being killed around me while I do NOTHING!" Lily screamed, "We shouldn't have to live like this!"

"No, no you shouldn't" said a man's voice.


	4. Teddy

Lily screamed and spun around, rock in hand, ready to throw. A man sat at their small dining room table, his feet on the table top. He was dressed oddly, in brown robes and was twirling a stick in his hand. The same kind of stick Death Eaters had used to kill Oliver minutes ago. The man watched her with curious eyes, scrutinizing the bruises blooming on her face and her mud splattered appearance.

"Who are you?" Lily snarled.

The man swung his feet off the side of the table and put the stick into his pocket. "Calm yourself child, and put that rock down for Merlin's sake."

Lily raised the rock higher. "Who. Are. You?" Lily repeated with venom in her voice.

Ginevra spoke, "Lily-"

Lily cut across her "I ASKED YOU WHO YOU ARE!" Lily screamed. She wasn't going to sit here and play games, Oliver had just been murdered and there was a large possibility that this man could do the same to her.

The man lazily waved the stick in the air and said  _ "Accio!" _

The rock was suddenly ripped from Lily's hand and flew through the air and into the man's outstretched palm.

Lily felt a tingle of fear crawl down her spine, but before she could reach in her pocket for another rock Ginevra spoke. "Lily honey calm down."

Lily stared at her. "Calm down! He's a Death Eater!"

The stranger interrupted. "I most certainly am not." He said in an insulted tone "I am Wren Cawson a Professor at Fogsburn Academy of witchcraft and wizardry."

Lily stared at him. "Do you think I'm daft?"

"No, not at all. I think you are a witch."

"I- what?" Lily felt like the world was spinning. "No. I can't be!" all witches and wizards were Death Eaters. She couldn't become a Death Eater, she wouldn't. "No! You'll have to kill me before I join the Dark Lord!"

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Oh no child you've got it all wrong, Fogsburn is the resistance." He said, "We don't fight  _ for  _ You-Know-Who, we fight  _ against  _ him."

"Really?"

"Yes, and you Lily Prewett are a Muggle born witch. You are now old enough to start training, you are eleven old yes?"

Lily nodded. "Training. Training to fight the Death Eaters. And the Dark Lord."

"It is up to you of course, you don't have to come."

Lily glanced at her mother who had barely said a word. Ginevra's face was white and she was wringing her hands in her lap. "Will I be able to come back and visit?"

"Yes, we have Christmas, Easter, and summer holidays. You'll be able to write your mother once a month, when the mail is delivered."

Lily looked at her mother again. "Mum?"

Ginevra looked at her, then at the ground. Lily walked up to her mother and put her hand on her mother's. Lily noted that her hand was caked in mud and blood. "Mum, I have to do this."

"Lily-"

"No! Mum," Lily spoke gently, "this is something I've got to do. I've  _ got  _ to fight. For you, for Oliver," Lily's eyes stung, "and everyone else. If there is the slightest chance I can put a stop to all of this, and actually  _ stop  _ the Dark Lord, I'll take it."

A tear leaked out of Ginevra's eye and she pulled Lily into a huge hug. "You are just like your father." She whispered.

Cawson cleared his throat. "I am sorry, but we must be going."

Lily pulled away from her mother's embrace. "There is something I need first." Lily dashed to her room, reached under her cot and pulled out the pocket watch and stowed it in her own pocket, made sure she still had the map on her, and was about to go back to the dinning table when she heard a noise.

Her mother was standing in the doorway, watching her sadly. "I'll have to tell everyone you're dead." She said in a sad whisper.

Lily gulped. "I'll write you every month."

Ginevra nodded. "I know you will." Lily ran into her mother's safe embrace. "Lily." Her mother said, she took Lily's face in her hands and kissed her forehead. "Lovely Lily." Ginevra smiled through tears, "Brave, sweet, strong Lily."

"I love you mum." Lily said, "Stay safe while I'm gone."

"I will." She held something out that Lily hadn't noticed she was holding. "Take this; it's to keep you safe."

Lily took the object from her mother. It felt like liquid and was a silvery gray color. When she unfolded it, it went tumbling to the floor in a fluid motion where it trailed from her hands in gleaming folds. It was very strange to the touch, like smooth water. "What is it?"

"And invisibility cloak, I bought it from The Black Market; it's a wizarding item. Lily you must promise me two things. First, tell  _ no one _ about the cloak unless you trust them with your  _ life. _ Second is something very important you need to remember. The Dark Lord's name is  _ Voldemort. _ Always call him that from now on.  _ Nothing _ else." Lily was confused but nodded. Her mother pressed, "Promise me."

Lily nodded again. "I promise." She said. She would miss her mother so much. She looked at the cloak and decided she would try it on later and folded it and put it in the front of her shirt. "Voldemort." She said rolling the word in her mouth, "I'll remember."

"You need to go." Ginevra said kissing her head again, "Stay safe."

"I will. Goodbye Mum." She slid out of her Mother's hug and met Cawson in the small kitchen.

"Ready?' he asked.

Lily took a deep breath. She was ready. "Yes."

"Good, follow me."

Lily got one last glimpse of her mother's tearstained face before shutting the apartment door behind her. They headed for the door of the building but Lily stopped when she noticed it was after curfew. "It's after curfew! We can't go nowhere now!"

Cawson waved her worries away. "Don't fret, we won't be caught."

"But," Lily wrung her hands, "What about the scream?"

"What you mean the Caterwauling Charm? Don't worry, we've disabled it."

Lily was sure the charm would still be set off but when she stepped outside, no scream greeted her. As they walked she wondered where they could be going, but when the abandoned house came in to view, she knew.

"The Black Market?"

"Yes, we give John supplies and he lets us use the Apparating zone."

Lily didn't know what an Apparating zone was but was too scared to ask. They entered the house and the smell assaulted Lily's nose. The garbage towered over them as they made their way down the hall to the bathroom. When they entered the bathroom, Lily expected Cawson to move aside the toilet and climb down the ladder, but instead he went to the shower that had a glass door in place to keep the water inside when it had worked. He stepped in and looked at her, "Coming?"

Confused, Lily stepped in the shower after him and closed the glass door. Cawson spoke staring at the toilet, "Just need to wait for the signal, shouldn't be long."

Very confused now, she stared at the toilet too, just in time to see Owl's hand emerge from under the lid and give a thumbs up.

"Okay, that's the signal. Take my arm, and don't let go. Grip tightly, there you go. And we're…  _ off!" _ Cawson shouted.

There was a loud  _ POP  _ everything suddenly went black and she was overcome with the sensation of being forced down a tight rubber tube. Lily couldn't breathe, couldn't see, and couldn't hear. She held onto the thing that was Cawson's arm for dear life.

As suddenly as it begun, it stopped. Lily gasped as air rushed into her lungs, her head swam, and her ears popped. "Uhg! I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Yes most people feel that way their first time Apparating. Just takes getting used to. Now I'm going to leave you here and go collect more students. Other Professor's will drop children off then leave to get more. When we're finished we'll come back and get all of you, understand?"

"Yes."

"Good, now go make friends, I'll see you soon." Then he disappeared with a loud  _ CRACK. _

For the first time, Lily looked around the room. It was rather large and filled with comfortable looking chairs and couches. Sitting on them were about forty or so children around her age. Most of them were covered in mud, just like she was but some weren't, and there were some in nice robes who looked like they didn't have fleck of dirt on them. They were all staring at her.

Lily pulled herself up as tall as she could, and stared around the room threateningly until they looked away. She did not feel like sitting in a chair so she walked over to a wall and sat down against it and put her head in her hands. She refused to cry in front of these children, but her heart still ached to see Oliver. She knew she would see her mother eventually so Lily missed her less.

She still felt the eyes of the children on her, but she didn't feel like challenging their stares any longer when a boy suddenly stood up and made his way over to her and sat down against the wall next to her. The boy was very clean and he wore robes instead of rags, even if they were a bit shabby. He was very pale with sandy-brown hair and looked sick which wasn't uncommon but he was still smiling madly at Lily. "Hullo." He said.

"Er… Hullo." Lily replied cautiously.

"I'm Teddy. Teddy Lupin." He smiled and extended his hand.

"I'm Lily Prewett." She said, and shook his outstretched hand. "What camp are you from?" she said eyeing his robes and washed hair.

"Oh I'm not. My parents refused to go to one so they ran from the Death Eaters and have been underground ever since."

"Wow." Lily said awed. Before today, she never knew of anyone rebelling against the Death Eaters and was amazed that people were.

"Yeah. Mum and Dad thought I should be in here though, so I can have friends my own age. You see," he said at Lily's confused look, "my parents work at the school. My dad is the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, and my Mum is the flying instructor. They just thought I should be with the rest of the children."

"Wicked." Lily smiled.

"What about you?"

"Oh. I live in Muggle camp 18."

"What's it like?"

Lily's smile slid from her face as pictures of the camp flashed before her eyes. Dead bodies all over the streets after The Black Parade, skinny staving children, flashes of green, and Oliver's face. "It's awful." Lily said quietly. "Just before I came here, they killed my best friend." Her voice cracked.

"I'm so sorry Lily." Teddy looked at her with sad eyes. "What was her name? Or his name."

"Ol- Oliver." Just speaking his name sent a pang through her.

"Tell me about him."

Lily did. She told him everything about Oliver, how they pulled pranks on the Death Eaters and defended their streets against rival groups. She also told him about Oliver's parents, and how no one in his family would even notice he was gone. She told Teddy how much Oliver hated the sewers and how he would end up down there. She felt tears sliding down her face and cursed.

"Hey," Teddy said gently, "the tears make you human. They separate you from the Death Eaters."

Lily sniffed. "Thanks Teddy." She couldn't understand why she'd just told Teddy everything that had been weighing on her mind, but was glad she did.

"Anytime Flower."

Lily laughed. "Flower?"

"Well Lily's a flower innit?"

Lily laughed again, but stopped when she heard a voice. "Um, excuse me." Lily looked up and felt her jaw drop.

In front of her was a skinny tall girl with matted blonde hair. The ex-leader of the rival group. Lily stuttered, "But- You're dead!"

She smiled sadly. "That's what I had to tell everyone." She cleared her throat. "I, uh, heard you talking. Oliver was the boy with the red hair right?"

Lily looked at the ground. "Right."

"I'm sorry." She looked rather awkward, "He was a good rival."

Lily laughed through tears, "Thanks." She looked at the girl, "I'm Lily and this is Teddy."

The girl smiled. "I'm Katie." They shook hands and Katie sat cross-legged across from Lily and Teddy. She too was covered in mud.

Suddenly, there was a loud  _ POP  _ and a woman with bright pink hair appeared with a girl.

Lily recognised the girl. She was the girl who had stepped up as leader for the rival group when Katie had "died", the girl she had fought with moments before Oliver's murder. She and the pink-haired woman exchanged a few words before the woman disappeared with a loud  _ CRACK. _

Katie shot to her feet. "Cora!"

The girl named Cora screamed. "Katie!" and ran over to hug her. "I can't believe it! I thought you were dead!"

"No, it's just what we've got to tell everyone." She hugged her again. "I'm so glad you're 'ere!"

"Me too." Cora had a bruise on her face from one Lily's punches and her lip was swollen. Her eyes drifted to where Lily and Teddy sat. Her eyes rested on Lily and widened. "You're alive too!"

"Yeah. Does- does my group think I'm dead?"

"Yeah," said Cora, "You and that read-head boy who beat up Peter."

Lily looked away as her eyes stung. "They were right about one."

Cora was silent a moment before saying. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. Not your fault." Lily sniffed. "Did your group escape the Death Eaters?"

"Yeah, Peter got tortured a bit, but he'll be okay. They all think I died though."

"Yeah. But it's probably for the best." Said Katie. She turned to Cora and said, "This is Lily and that's Teddy."

"Nice to meet you." She smiled.

"Sorry about the fat lip." Lily said.

"It's alright, sorry about the side of your face."

"Why were you fighting again?" asked Teddy.

"Over possession of a street." Lily said.

Before Teddy could open his mouth to speak, there was another loud  _ POP  _ followed closely by two more. Lily recognised Cawson, and the pink-haired woman, but did not know the other man. He had sandy-brown hair streaked with gray. He was pale, his robes were shabby, and he had bags under his eyes, but was smiling at the group of children nonetheless. He instantly reminded her of Teddy and knew this must be his father. Her suspicions were confirmed when Teddy leaned over and whispered in her ear, "That's my Dad, and the woman with the pink hair is my Mum."

Lily's eyebrows rose in surprise and she turned to Teddy to say something, but when she turned to him she forgot what she was about to say because his hair was now a bright blue. "Mum's a Metamorphmagus, passed it down to me."

"A  _ what?" _

"Means we can change our appearance at will." Teddy clarified.

As Lily pondered this Teddy's father cleared his throat. "May I have everyone's attention please!" he said rather unnecessarily in Lily's opinion. Everyone was already staring at him, "My name is Professor Remus Lupin," Lupin gestured in Cawson's direction, "this is Professor Wren Cawson," he gestured to Teddy's mum, "and this is my wife Professor Nymphadora Lupin although you may call her Professor Tonks to save yourself confusion. Now," he waved his wand and two doors appeared. "Ladies through the door to your right you can go and clean up, same for the Gentlemen in the door to your left. Take three hours to clean yourselves up and then we'll get your supplies. Off you go."

Lily looked at Teddy, "I'll see you later then." she said.

Teddy smiled, "See you later Flower." He grinned at her once more then followed the rest of the boys.

"Come on Lily, I could do with a good wash." Said Katie.

"Yeah." Lily said, "I'm coming."

The soap and shampoo must have been magical because it not only washed away the mud and dirt covering her, but also smoothed out her matted hair and healed all of her cuts and bruises. It was the first time she'd ever felt clean and she'd never realized how long her hair was.

When she emerged from the showers, she found rows of neatly folded uniform robes waiting for them. As she put them on, they magically adjusted to her size. While the other girls showered, Lily picked up a pair of scissors and with each snip, a lock of black hair fell to the floor by her feet which now wore shiny new black combat boots. Lily looked in the mirror at her hair that now hung just above her shoulders, opposed to tumbling past her shoulder blades.

When Katie emerged from the shower she let out a small scream at the sight of Lily's hair. "Oh Lily! You've gone and chopped off your hair! Not that it doesn't look good, it's just rather short don't you think?" Katie's blonde hair was even longer than Lily's would've been.

"I've got a long time to grow it out don't I?" Lily countered as Cora emerged from a shower and changed into her robes. Katie and Cora linked arms and went through the door in which they came, Lily trailing behind them. When they entered the furnished room, they found that Teddy was already there, talking softly to his father. Katie and Cora followed Lily as she crossed the room. Teddy and Professor Lupin looked up as they approached, Teddy smiling widely at them.

"You must be Lily." Professor Lupin stated, smiling warmly at her, "It's good to meet you, and you two ladies must be Katie and Cora." He said kindly.

"Yes sir." Katie said.

"Lovely!" Lupin clapped his hands together and said, "Well we've still got to wait about an hour or so for the others, so try to stay out of trouble."

"We will Dad." Teddy promised. For the next hour, Katie and Cora chatted while Teddy entertained Lily by changing his face and hair. Lily gave a particularly loud laugh as Teddy's face seemed to swell up, his nose imitating that of a pig's, and he started emitting loud snorting noises.

"Will you shut it?" Katie finally snapped, "That Professor is 'bout to say somethin'!"

And indeed, Professor Lupin had once again stood and waited for everyone to quiet before speaking, "We will now be going to Diagon Alley for your school supplies. Now, if you could all put a finger on this table top, yes that's it, it will transport us to Ollivanders Wand shop where you shall get your magic wand." Lily was shoved and squished as she tried to lay her finger on the table and found herself squeezed between Teddy and Cora. Professor Lupin's voice rose over the squabbling of the children, "In three… two… one!" Suddenly the table glowed blue and Lily suddenly felt the sensation of a hook jerking her forward, just behind her navel. Her feet left the ground and her finger seemed attached to the table, her feet whacked against Teddy's and Cora's as the spun faster and faster in a whirl of colors. Screams came from other children but Lily kept her mouth closed in fear that she might be sick, she clamped her eyes shut and suddenly…

It stopped.


	5. Fogsburn Academy

Lily hit the ground, landing on top of Teddy. While she stammered apologies, all of the other children were muttering and pushing themselves from the ground, Katie extending a hand to help Cora, the only ones who remained on their feet were the Professors.

"Where the bloody hell are we?" Cora asked, dusting herself off.

"It looks like a Library." Teddy commented.

Lily looked around. She had never seen a Library before so the only thing she could compare the store to was the Black Market. There were rows and rows of towering shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, filled with long rectangular boxes. It was very dusty, and the patches of sunlight that filtered through the boards on the windows swam with dust particles. In awe, Lily put her hand out, as if she could actually touch the ray of sun closest to her, and felt for the first time the sun's warmth on the tip of her fingers.

"Well what have we here?" a voice suddenly spoke, "More young witches and wizards coming to get their wands like so very many before them." Lily's first impression of the man was he looked a lot like Barn Owl but as she looked at him longer, she realized the only thing Owl and this man had in common was they were old. This man was very thin, his face waxen and wrinkly, there was no kind spark in his eyes, and his mouth turned down in the corners forming a permanent frown.

"Ah, Mr. Ollivander," Lupin said "Wren will drop by next month and give you any money we owe you."

Mr. Ollivander inclined his head, "Very well." He beckoned at a young read-haired girl and when she stepped forward he handed her a wand. "Give it a wave."

She did. Nothing happened.

The wand choosing process dragged on, hardly anything happened except when a chubby blonde child made a vase explode. Lily only paid attention when Teddy went up to choose his wand; he got his fairly quickly on his third try. Then it was only Katie, Cora, and Lily left. Cora got her wand after her tenth attempt, while Lily silently prayed  _ Please let me go next! I don't want to be last!  _ But as soon as she finished this thought, Ollivander had already beckoned Katie forward.  _ Damn!  _ Lily cursed silently. But as she looked around she noticed none of the children were paying Katie the slightest mind, even Cora who was chatting with Teddy excitingly comparing wands. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to be last, nobody would stare as opposed to the first person who held every eye.

Finally, Mr. Ollivander beckoned to her and she stepped shyly up to the desk. He scrutinized her skinny form and muttered to himself under his breath. "Willow? No, no that won't work. Mahogany? Hmm, possibly. Oak? No, no that would be a horrible choice. And the core…. Not unicorn, possibly dragon heartstring. Now  _ phoenix  _ on the other hand… well anything is possible of course." he muttered as he wandered up and down the rows of shelves, looking at the boxes. He came back with a box in hand, "Try this, Beachwood and unicorn hair, very flexible. Eleven inches."

Lily took the wand in er hand and waved it. Several books on a shelf nearby suddenly flew through the air and across the room. The children screamed; startled Lily quickly set the wand on the desk.

"Hmm, apparently not." Mr. Ollivander said, stepping over a fallen book. "Maple and heartstring perhaps?"

When Lily waved that one, a teapot exploded showering the group of children in cold tea. Cawson quickly ushered them into another room, only Lupin stayed behind, keeping a watchful curious eye on her. Ollivander muttered, "Hmm, haven't had tricky customers in ages, this looks promising indeed."

It went on. And  _ on.  _ Lily started to panic, what if they made a mistake and she was really a Muggle? She'd have to be sent back to the camp!

As if reading her thoughts, Lupin smiled at her kindly, "Alright there Lily?"

"Are- are you  _ sure  _ I'm a witch? That you didn't make a mistake?  _ None  _ of these wands are working!"

Lupin smiled at her. "I am absolutely positive you are a witch. The books flying off the shelves, the teapot… that was magic Lily. Powerful magic in fact for someone so young. And don't worry about the wand, you just haven't found the right match yet, mine took ages yet here I am."

Comforted by the Professor's words, Lily waited for Ollivander to come back with the next batch of wands. He came back, seven boxes in his arms. She quickly grew frustrated as she set six more wands on the desk in the steadily growing pile. She waited for Ollivander to hand her the last one, but he did not. He stared at her unblinkingly with creepy silver eyes, analyzing her. She could practically see the cogs turning in the old man's head; still staring at her, he muttered to himself, "Not an evil soul at all… quite the opposite. Very determined… loyal, cunning… smart, fierce... oh yes…" He muttered, his gaze growing more intense, "But certainly not evil… very powerful… of course so is the wand… it's not the  _ wand's  _ fault at all of course… no harm in seeing I suppose."

Abruptly, he broke eye contact with her leaving Lily feeling a bit dizzy and wondering what was going on. He handed her the narrow box as if it were made of glass. Confused Lily opened it and took out the wand. As soon as it touched her fingers, warmth spread up her whole arm spreading through her. She waved it and a shower of sparks flew out the end. Lily almost collapsed with relief, she'd finally found a wand.

"The wand chooses the wizard." Mr. Ollivander whispered, "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Phoenix tail feather."

"No!" startled, Lily looked up at Lupin who had spoken,  _ "Absolutely _ not! Do you have  _ any  _ idea what that wand has  _ done?  _ Who it  _ belonged _ to?"

"Of course I do." Mr. Ollivander spoke in a harsh tone, "I more than anyone. But it whispered to me not too long ago, that a new master would claim it, and once again it would enter the war. Which side it takes… well, that will be  _ her  _ choice. And hers alone."

"War? What war? The war was  _ won _ by the Dark Lord! What's going on? What's wrong with my wand?"

Lupin sighed, "It's nothing. Now come along, we've got to get back to the others." Lupin muttered not looking her in the eye.

"If it really is nothing then you wouldn't mind telling me." Lily said in a cold tone. She stared at him.

He sighed again. "Very well. But know this now, the wand has chosen. It cannot be undone. Also, wands are neither good, nor evil. It's up to the wielder to decide that."

Lily took a deep breath, "Okay."

Lupin nodded. "That wand has been owned before and is a twin to another wand."

Lily blinked wondering what he meant by twin but asked the more pressing question. "Who… owned this wand before?"

Lupin took a deep breath. "The Dark Lord."

Lily walked up to her friends numbly. Voldemort had once owned the wand that was now in her pocket. She felt faintly sick at the thought of how many people this wand had killed. How many people had lost children, siblings, friends, lovers, or parents to this wand?

Lily stopped dead a few feet from her friends, a thought having struck her. "Lily," Teddy called softly, "what's wrong?"

_ Me. _ I've _ lost someone to this wand.  _ Lily thought about the time her mother had told her how her father had died. Lord Voldemort had been overseeing Muggle camp 18 as people were imprisoned in it for the first time. Her father had fought, claiming he would die before he set foot in a camp. And Voldemort complied.

Feeling as though she were going to be sick, Lily broke away from the crowd of children and sat against the wall, her head tilted back. She jumped when a voice spoke, "I should never have told you." Professor Lupin stood over her, watching with a worried frown on his face.

"I asked. I needed to know." Lily took out the wand and stared at it. "This- this  _ thing  _ killed my father." She whispered.

"I'm sorry about your father. But if it means anything, the Dark Lord stopped using that wand twelve years ago. That wand never touched your father."

She considered this and decided it helped knowing that. She smiled at him. "Thank you Professor Lupin."

"You're welcome, now come along; we need to go get your robes, books, and other things." He tossed her a black duffel bag and smiled.

She joined the other children and immediately knew Teddy was curious, but he had the decency not to say anything in front of the others. Professor Lupin told them that if someone should stop them in the streets, they would pose as orphans on a monthly trip out of the orphanage. Outside, Diagon Alley was bare; hardly anyone was insight except for an old man selling pendants that were supposed to protect you from dark magic. They quickly hurried into the next shop.

Their duffel bags must have been magic, because no matter how much stuff she put into it, it never filled up or weighed over two stones. When they finished getting everyone's books, they made their way over to a shop called Eeylops Owl Emporium. Inside it smelled slightly and was filled with all kinds of owls and birds. Screech, Tawny, Brown, Barn, Black, and Snowy. Lily came along a cage that had inside, instead of an owl, a black cat. "Well hullo," she murmured poking her fingers through the cage so the cat could rub against them, "you're not an owl at all are you?" the cat mewed and unfolded a pair of black feathery wings. Lily found a grin form on her face. "Wicked."

She exited the shop with her new cat-raven she named Willow. Teddy had gotten a black owl he still hadn't decided a name for yet; Katie had gotten a barn owl and had named it John, (Lily and Cora laughed while Teddy looked confused) and Cora didn't get a bird, claiming that flying things frightened her.

When all of the children had been ushered into a bare basement room under the bookshop Flourish and Blotts, Professor Lupin spoke, "We will now be leaving for Fogsburn Academy," excited whispers broke out amongst the children and Professor Lupin waited until they subsided before speaking again. "We will once again take a Portkey to a safehouse nearby, and then I'm afraid we'll have a bit of a walk until we reach the entrance. You must be very quiet on this trip, you never know who's listening nearby." A shiver ran through the group of children as they gathered around an old Muggle car tire.

With the duffel bag safely in place on her back, and Willow's cage in hand, Lily stepped forward with the other children and placed a single finger on the tire, dreading the spinning sensation. Lily once again felt the jerking sensation just behind her navel. After several moments, the basement was replaced with the bare white walls of an empty house. They all followed Tonks' bright hair as it bobbed along in front of them; the walk was long but uneventful. Lily and Teddy hung behind as Lily told him what had happened back in Diagon Alley. She was slightly afraid he wouldn't want to be friends with her because of the wand she possessed, but that wasn't the case. All he said was, "Eh you shouldn't worry about it. The wand chooses the wizard after all. Blimey, do you  _ know  _ how powerful that wand is? You'll be one powerful witch, just you wait!"

His words warmed her and she continued the rest of the journey with a slight bounce in her step.

When the children finally came to a stop it was so suddenly that several people stumbled over the person in front of them. In front of them was a vast lake, and on the opposite shore Lily could see the enormous outline of a castle. "Is that Fogsburn?" she asked of no one in particular.

"No," said Teddy, "That's the fallen school Hogwarts, and this is the Black Lake. Hogwarts has been empty for years, it won't let anyone inside."

"You say that like it's alive." Said Katie.

"In a way." Said Teddy, "Has some sort of consciousness anyway."

Lily pondered this as Professor Tonks spoke "Alright midgets," she said cheerfully, "getting into Fogsburn is a bit complicated to make sure the Death Eaters don't come knocking on the front door." Professor Cawson was bent over the water and for a moment Lily thought he was sick, but then noticed he was talking to what looked like a head in the water. "I'm going to place a charm on you that will allow you to breathe underwater for an hour," Tonks continued, "You'll be paired up with a merperson who will help lead you to the entrance. Now come on! Don't be shy, line up!"

Lily asked Teddy, "She was joking about the merpeople right?"

"Nope," Teddy said cheerfully, "but don't worry, they're quite nice."

"He's mad!" said Cora.

"No he isn't," said Katie, "Look!"

Lily looked, in the water was indeed a head, but looked nothing like a human's. The merperson had gray skin with long wild green hair and yellow eyes that peered at the students who were eyeing him nervously. No one approached and Tonks called, "Come on, who's first? No one brave enough?"

When no one stepped forward, Lily sighed and took a deep breath then stepped forward. "I- I am." She said confidently.

Tonks laughed, "You're brave huh? Alright then." she rapped Lily over the head with her wand and a bubble encased her head, giving the impression she had an overturned fish bowl on her shoulders. She glared at Teddy as he laughed. "Just walk into the water, he'll take your arm and lead you to the entrance."

Lily nodded and swallowed. She stepped to the edge of the Black Lake, fighting the urge to turn around and look to Teddy for reassurance. She had never learned to swim growing up in the camp, and was slightly afraid she would drown. But she swallowed her fears and stepped into the lake, gasping at the sudden cold. She waded through the water to the merperson whose hand was outstretched; she noticed he had webs between his fingers. When the water was up to her neck she finally reached him, and took his hand, it was rather slippery and slimy. Even with the bubble head charm she took a deep breath anyway before submerging in the dark waters of the Black Lake.

It was rather odd seeing the world from under the water, very different from the surface, but Lily decided she wanted five more eyes, that way she could look at everything. There were vast forests of rippling black weed that swayed in the water and large plains littered with glimmering stones. The merperson suddenly spoke, "Do not be alarmed when we enter the village." His voice was surprisingly gentle for such a wild face.

"I am not afraid." She said, her voice muffled by the charm.

They entered the village and as they swam by underwater houses, merpeople came out to look at them as they passed; some of them had small tentacled horned creatures tethered outside their home. They swam to what looked like the village square where even more merpeople had gathered. They swam up to a gigantic merperson statue and up to its base, her companion let go of her hand to roll a large stone out of the way then turned to her and said, "Grab onto my tail, the passage is narrow."

She grabbed his tail with both hands as he started to swim forward, the passage was indeed narrow; every once in a while, Lily's head or side would brush against the walls. The passage started to curve downward, until the merperson was swimming straight down, dragging Lily with him. The passageway started to level out again for a few feet, bet then suddenly curved straight upward. Lily inwardly groaned. It was cold, she was soaked and tired and was about to ask her companion when they would reach Fogsburn, when she noticed a light gathering in front of them. The narrow passage opened to a large pool and the merperson twisted around to grab hold of her arm, and push her to the surface.

The charm wore off just before her head broke the surface and she gasped as cold water splashed over her cheeks. Wiping water out of her eyes, she looked around. It reminded her of the Hole, the walls and ceiling were made of stone. Across from her, where the water grew shallow and leveled out with the stone was a large wooden door and standing in front of it, was a woman.

The merperson helped guide her until the water was shallow enough so she could stand. Shivering, she turned to look at him, "Thanks for all your help."

He inclined his head and with a wild smile showing yellow pointed teeth, gave her a webbed wave and dove back into the water. She turned back to the woman, still standing ankle deep in water.

She looked very strict, and didn't have a smile on her face or any other expression. She had long straight dark-brown hair that fell down her back just above her waist. She was thin and pale, with heavily lidded dark eyes. She was young, Lily could tell, but the small frown on her face made her appear older. "Come on child, step out of the water, I won't bite." Lily stepped forward and she tapped her with her wand, Lily's clothes and hair instantly became dry. The woman spoke again, "I am Professor Callidus, the charms professor."

"I'm Lily Prewett."

"Nice to meet you, ah look. Here comes another one of your classmates." And indeed, Katie's head had just broken the surface of the water. After she had been dried off and introduced to Callidus she came to stand by Lily.

"They weren't joking, that took  _ forever! _ No Death Eater would be able to find this place." Said Katie.

"I hope so." She said, watching the water as Teddy's head broke the surface and he swam to shore.

After a while, all the children, plus the three professors, were all gathered on the shore. Professor Callidus spoke, "We will now enter Fogsburn Academy where you will be sorted into your houses. They are the same as they were in Hogwarts, There are, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin.

"Each house focuses on a specific skill you will specialize in to help with the war. Ravenclaw teaches war strategy, Hufflepuff teaches medical training, Gryffindor teaches battle dueling, and Slytherin teaches you to become a spy. While you are here, your house will be like your family, follow rules and you will gain house points, break rules and you will lose points. At the end of the year the winner of the house cup will be announced. You are able to go out on missions when you reach sixteen years of age, no sooner. Now follow me." She opened the double doors with a wave of her wand and headed down the passageway, the children trailing behind her.

The passageway was circular and made of solid stone lit by torches mounted in the walls, it lead down, diving deeper and deeper beneath the Black Lake. They passed points where the tunnel broke off and went in other directions; it reminded Lily of a rabbit's burrow. The path they were on suddenly opened up to a large room, with a staircase leading to more tunnels and large red double doors. Professor Callidus threw open the large doors and strode through, the children behind her.

The hall was huge with the four long house tables, each seating a large cluster of children and the staff table at the head of the room, the ceiling was transparent and through it you could see fish and merpeople swim by in the Black Lake's murky depths. Lily scanned the staff table and quickly located Teddy's parents. The headmaster sat in the largest chair in the center of the table and stared out over the children with a hard frown on his face. Lily thought he looked stricter than even Callidus, his face was hard, his blonde hair falling into ice-blue eyes that observed everything as if the empty stool in front of the staff table would suddenly jump up and attack him. "Who's that bloke?" Lily asked Teddy, gesturing at him.

"The Headmaster, Professor Daniel Fogsburn. He founded and built the school."

"Blimey, he looks like he could kill you with a glance."

"War changes people, most the staff is like Callidus, strict and mostly impassive but still have a sense of humor, not him though. He manages the dueling class, treats everything like he's in the battlefield. Has all kinds of protection spells on his office and loads of dark detectors.  _ No one  _ hates the Dark Lord or his Death Eaters more than him." Teddy whispered, "He's like a mix of Harry Potter and Mad Eye Moody."

" _ Who?" _

"Tell you later." Teddy whispered as Callidus stood up, a worn and beaten hat in her hand and a scroll in another.

"When I call your name, you will sit on the stool, place the sorting hat on your head and be sorted into your house." She unraveled the scroll and read the first name, "Katie Anderson."

Katie paled and cautiously walked up the steps and sat on the stool as Callidus placed the hat on her head. It slipped below her eyes so only her mouth was visible. After a few seconds of silence a rip near the bottom of the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" the table to the right of the children erupted in applause. Relieved she quickly pulled off the hat and practically ran to sit at the table.

After the shock of seeing a talking hat, Lily didn't much pay attention to any other names, but when "Coralline Jonson!" was called she looked up. Cora walked up and after a few seconds was placed in Gryffindor alongside Katie.

"Teddy Lupin!" Teddy walked up confidently and the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed; "GRYFFINDOR!" and Teddy ran off to join Katie and Cora at the table.

Lily waited anxiously, now alone without her friends to keep her mind occupied. She felt a little jolt as Professor Callidus called out, "Lily Prewett!"

Knees shaking, Lily climbed the short steps and shat down rigidly on the stool, her heart racing a mile a minute. She just had time to see Teddy give her thumbs up before the hat dropped over her head.

" _Ah,_ a voice in Lily's head sounded, she gripped the edges of the stool tighter as the voice continued, _what have we here? Fine mind, very smart although a bit rash. Very determined_ _and loyal…_ _cunning…_ _fierce! Oh yes_ … _very fierce. A thirst to right the wrongs and stand up for yourself and others. And very powerful too… and… ah. So many hidden secrets you can never know…at least, not yet."_ Lily's mind was reeling, trying to keep up with everything the hat said, _"Now, where to put you? You need the skill of fighting, but you also need the skill of lying to your foes. You must learn to plan your attacks, but you need to know how to heal yourself should you fail. Very difficult…"_ Lily's heart started beating rapidly. This was it, this was where she would be told her place in the war, and suddenly, she was afraid. She wanted- no, _needed_ to be put somewhere that she would be able to help. Not _fight,_ but _help._ Lily thought about what each house had to offer, and didn't know how she could possibly choose between houses. " _Ah,_ the hat thought, _your mind is very rare. You've got so much potential… I haven't had this difficult of a choice in my lifetime. Times are changing Miss Prewett, and if you want to help change them then you must find a way to use all the skills, regardless of the house."_ Before Lily could ask how, the hat abruptly shouted: "GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily ripped off the hat and stared at it in shock as the Gryffindor table erupted in applause. She didn't exactly understand what had just happened, but knew what the hat told her was important, but also private. She stood up straight, head held high and rushed to sit down at the Gryffindor table next to Teddy and couldn't help the smile that spread over her face as her friends congratulated her.

The sorting continued but she paid it no mind, instead staring around the hall and laughing at the faces Teddy made. When the sorting was over, Callidus collected the hat and stool as Headmaster Fogsburn stood up and said, "Let the feast begin!"

Suddenly the table filled with the most food Lily had ever seen. Growing up in the camp, she had never even  _ dreamed  _ of all this food, she thought, with a pang, for a moment of Oliver but quickly pushed aside the thought. Eyes wide, she grabbed anything and everything she could get her hands on and didn't think once of what the sorting hat said as she, Teddy, Katie, and Cora exchanged stories and laughed at the faces Teddy made. Lily decided she would think about things tomorrow, but for now she was going to enjoy laughing the night away with some of her best friends.


	6. The Beginning of a New Life

As the last of the pudding was magically cleared away, the students steadily grew silent as Professor Fogsburn stood up. "This is the beginning of a new year for all of our old students, and for our new, this is the beginning of a new life. A chance to fight back, to have a voice and have an opinion. And to our new students, you may seem safer here than you were at home, but if Fogsburn were to be discovered, we would all be slaughtered simply for being here. You may feel protected by the walls of the school, but never forget what lurks just outside." He paused, "This year is another chance. We all remember last year how our group of graduated seventh years got captured, and I know that some of you are still hoping that they're alive somewhere. I am sorry to say this is not the case. A memorial has been put up outside the hall in memory of their gallant efforts. But by learning and training we can come together and defeat the Dark Lord. It is possible, and we  _ will  _ get there." He paused again before saying, "But for now you have classes to attend to in the morning and beds waiting for you. Off to bed with the lot of you."

As the rest of the school whispered about Fogsburn's speech, and as a student a few seats down from Lily burst into tears at the news of the dead students, Lily sat in stunned silence.  _ "What?"  _ she wasn't really aware that she had spoken out loud, but at the moment didn't care. A wave of anger washed over her and she quickly stood up on the bench and stepped onto the table, shaking slightly with rage. The whole hall stared at her again, as she stood above all their heads and stared at the Headmaster. She wasn't sure where this wave of anger had come from but didn't care. "That's  _ it?"  _ she shouted. "No information on what the Death Eaters have been up to or how we can stop them? No information about the war, which I didn't even know  _ existed  _ until  _ yesterday?  _ No explanation on why you're sending  _ children  _ to fight in a war? What exactly  _ does  _ 'Lurk outside'? Yeah, this is a beginning of a new life, but what  _ kind  _ of life? Who's to say the life I had before is safer than this one? You say that we can come together and defeat the Dark Lord and we'll get there eventually.  _ When?  _ What are we doing, what movements are we making to actually  _ stop  _ Voldemort?"

There was a collective gasp that echoed throughout the hall. Mouths dropped open and people shuddered in fear. No one had spoken that name since the dearth of Harry Potter. Lily looked around the hall at the gaping faces and felt defensive and frustrated. "Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself!" she shouted at the hall.

The Headmaster stared at her with ice-cold blue eyes and she stared right back. She felt a tug on her leg and Teddy whispering that she better get down now or else she was going to be in big trouble. She shook him off as the Headmaster spoke again. "Gryffindor indeed." He said staring at her, he straightened up and spoke, "The Death Eaters continue to round up people and continue to make more camps. They are now rounding up the magical creatures and segregating them into camps also. We try to get the creatures to see reason and join us, but most don't believe us until it is too late. The war is nonexistent to the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters; we don't have enough people or supplies to launch an attack. And we are sending teenagers on missions because we have no one else. This new beginning is something you have to make for yourselves, it is very dangerous. These are dark times there's no denying. The Death Eaters and The Dark Lord are lurking outside these halls, and you'll do best to not forget that."

"How can I forget they're out there when they killed my best friend and ruined my life? You haven't grown up in the camps!"

He pointed a finger at her, "Don't underestimate what I've been through!"

"Then don't you underestimate what  _ I've  _ been through!" she shouted. "What we've all been through!"

The silence in the hall pressed down on Lily's ears and in that moment she both wished she had never spoken and was immensely glad she had. "Regardless of what we've been through," Fogsburn said, "there is more to come. And you'd all be better prepared for it with a good night worth of sleep." He stared around the hall, piercing gaze traveling over them all before saying, "Dismissed." He stood up and exited the hall, robes billowing around him as he walked.

Feeling rather numb, Lily stepped down from the table and was the first one to start walking towards the exit, knowing full well that she had no idea where she was supposed to be going. But with a scrape of a bench, Teddy, Cora and Katie all got up and followed her, the rest of the school following suite after a moment of shocked silence. Lily turned to look at her friends and knew, right then, that she was lucky to have them, and they would stick with her no matter what.

"Now," said Cora after a few moments of walking, "anyone got  _ any _ idea  _ where _ we're supposed to be going?"

Lily said, "No." at the same time that Teddy said, "Yes."

They looked at each other and smiled before Teddy elaborated "Practically lived in this school since I was five. We've got a house of course but since the Death Eaters nearly found it last year we've been livin' 'ere."

"Perfect!" Katie was practically glowing. "We won't be late for any of our classes!"

Teddy and Lily groaned while Cora laughed and Katie looked affronted. "They  _ are  _ important you know! You can't just run off and fight the Dark Lord now that you've got a wand! You've got to learn how to use it first!"

Lily sighed as they rounded another corner, the tunnel they were in widening with each step, "I'm just not looking forward to classes. People will look at me funny! And if you're going to talk about Voldemort use his name." she said, faintly surprised at the severity of her friends' reaction as they jumped, gasped and shuddered.

"You're not Harry flippin' Potter! Stop using his name!"

"I will not! It's just a word! And that's the second time you mentioned this Potter bloke. Who is he anyway?"

"My Godfather." Teddy said, he opened his mouth to say more, but Cora interrupted.

"We must've took a wrong turn, tunnel ends here," she said "look."

In front of them was a gigantic stone statue of a lion, it towered above their heads, its stone eyes seeming to gaze down at them. Lily could have sworn she saw its stone tail twitch, but of course, that was impossible.

Teddy said, "We didn't take a wrong turn. This is the entrance. The password is… er… oh yeah! CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he suddenly screamed at the statue, causing the girls to jump.

The lion statue suddenly moved, causing Katie and Cora to utter small screams of shock, and Lily to jump backward in alarm, colliding with Teddy. The statue's tail really did twitch this time and the lion seemed to eye them with an amused sort of expression on its stone face. It simply said, "Indeed." Before standing and moving aside, revealing stone steps that lead to a door.

"Ow!" Teddy protested as Lily punched him on the arm, "What was that for?"

"For not telling us about the moving talking statue." He stuck his tongue out at her.

"Hey no one told me when I first came here." He smirked, "Just thought you should have the same experience."

"You are insufferable." Said Lily as they passed the lion and entered the Gryffindor Common Room. It was a cozy room, the walls lined with Gryffindor scarlet and gold. A fire was cackling merrily in the fireplace and students milled about the room chatting with friends.

"The girls dorm is on the left," said Teddy pointing.

"Oh! Come on Katie, let's go have a look!" Cora looked eager to see a room that wasn't constantly cold and gray, as hers had been back at the camps. "Are you coming Lily?"

"Er, no I think I'll stay 'ere. I'll be living in that room for the next seven years, I'll have time later."

"Suite yourself." Said Katie, flinging blonde hair out of her face, "Come on Cora." They linked arms once again and descended the stairs that lead to the dorms.

Lily heard a cat's meow and looked down to see Willow circling her legs. Lily suddenly felt an overwhelming emotion wash over her as she reached down and scooped Willow into her arms, smoothing down her feathers and fur. Something must have shown on her face because Teddy spoke, "Alright Flower?"

Lily was silent for a few moments. "I will be." Teddy led them over to some armchairs that were positioned in the corner of the Common Room, making the whole room in their line of vision. Teddy seemed to be waiting for her to say something, so she spoke. "It's just…" she paused, searching for the right word, "…unreal. Everything has happened so fast, I haven't had time to properly think about it until now. There are so many life changing things that have happened to me. My whole life was just overturned and now I've got to set it all up again. There are just some things I wish I'd changed."

Teddy nodded, thinking before he spoke. "There's no point in wishing. What's happened, happened and there's nothing you can do about it. No matter how hard you wish for it. Magic can't do everything Lily. If it could, we wouldn't be in this war. And I know it's scary. But you'll learn to make the best of it, shape your own life instead of the Death Eaters shaping it for you. Anyway, what could you do if you could go back? You couldn't change anything."

Lily's eyes flashed. "The  _ hell _ I couldn't! I could have stopped Oliver from dying!"

"Oh yeah?" Teddy countered, "How?"

"I wouldn't have lead the attack on that street! I would've saved it for another day!"

"And let Katie and Cora be slaughtered?"

This hadn't occurred to Lily. She frowned, her jaw working, "I-I would have kept Oliver out of it!"

"And be killed yourself? If he hadn't been in the way you would be dead right now."

Lily was frustrated he kept finding flaws in her plans. She glared at him, "I could've done something!"

"But that what you  _ could've _ done. Right now, it's about what you  _ can do _ from this point on." He leaned closer, the fire casting long shadows on his young, but serious, face.

Lily sat and considered his words. He was right of course, there was no changing the past and there was no knowing the future. All she had was the present. She took a deep breath, "You're right."

"Course I am. I'm always right."

Lily smiled, "Oh shut it."

By this time, the Common Room had practically cleared out; only a few older students remained. Lily sighed, dreading classes the next day but got up nonetheless. "Come on; probably best to get some sleep."

"Probably." Teddy stretched, "Good night Flower."

"'Night Teddy." Lily yawned.

As Lily climbed into her four-poster bed that night she sleepily thought,  _ I promise Oliver, I won't let them get away with this. We'll never be forgotten, just you wait and see. _


	7. A Place of Our Own

Lily was lifted off her feet and thrown into the wall. She gasped as she slid down the wall and quickly had to roll out of the way to avoid a curse from the magical mannequin that she was supposed to duel in today's dueling class. Before fighting each other, the students had to defeat an enchanted mannequin in Death Eater robes, but so far no one had been successful. Even Lily who usually conquered the tasks set to them in a matter of minutes was being thrown across the room like everyone else.

" _ Expelliarmus!" _ she shouted, the mannequin easily blocked. Lily cursed.

Most of the children seemed happy that Lily was having just as much trouble with this assignment as they were. Lily couldn't really help that she was so good in classes. The spells and charms assigned to them just came so easily to Lily. She only had to try the charm once or twice until she perfected it. Her friends were usually quick to follow, although most times Cora struggled until either Lily or Teddy helped her.

Potions, (taught by a very large old man named Horace Slughorn) was in Lily's opinion rather easy and very useful no matter how many times Cora said she thought it was rubbish. Herbology on the other hand, (taught by a man named Neville Longbottom) Lily thought was absolutely pointless even if it was a bit exciting. Defense Against the Dark Arts was one of Lily's favorite classes (other than Dueling class) and Professor Lupin was one of her favorite teachers. Transfiguration (taught by an old strict woman named Minerva McGonagall) was fascinating even if it was a little challenging for Lily although Teddy seemed to have a knack for it. History of Magic was frightfully boring for everyone it seemed except Katie who was fascinated not only by the class, but by the teacher who was a ghost named Cuthbert Binns. Astronomy (taught by a kind woman, Aurora Sinistra) was interesting enough, but Lily thought of a million things she'd rather be doing than stare at an enchanted ceiling at the late hours of the night when the real sky was separated from them by rock and water. Charms was Lily's third favorite class and other than Defensive Spells, these came most naturally. Occlumency class (taught by a mean snide dark haired man named Acutulus Superstes) was one of the hardest, but the need to keep people out of her head, and keep her memories secret was what made her the best in that class. Healing classes (taught by the Matron: Madam Poppy Pomfrey) were also relatively easy and very useful. Strategy class was taught by Professor Pius Amicus (a funny, kind, joker of a man) and was another favorite because she was rather good at it. She didn't really count Flying as a class, (it took place on Saturdays and was optional) but Lily loved it nonetheless. She was a natural at flying and was swift and agile, favoring the spot of seeker, where as Teddy favored the position of Beater. Katie was rubbish on a broom and Cora dreadfully afraid of heights.

She cursed again as the mannequin blocked yet another one of her spells. This was normally her favorite class, despite being taught by Fogsburn, but now it was just down right frustrating. Most of the teachers liked her enough, all except Fogsburn and Superstes that is, who seemed to dislike her even more every time she did something right in their classes. Professor Slughorn thought the world of her, and declared she could do no wrong even when (unknown to him) that she and Teddy roamed the halls of the school in the late hours of the night, Lily hell bent on mapping Fogsburn just as she had Muggle Camp 18. She wished she could read a book about maps, but there weren't any in the school Library. When Voldemort had taken over, he'd burned all the books he could get his hands on, the school had a very small supply of books, not all of them in the best condition. In most of the classes you participated and books weren't needed, but for the ones that were you had to share.

She shook her head, fighting to keep in the present as the mannequin fired another spell but Lily didn't react fast enough.

It wasn't a very powerful spell, just enough to make her stagger back a few steps, but she felt the strangest sensation as it hit her square in the chest. The spell hit her, and spread throughout her whole body, from the top of her head to the tips of her fingers and toes, she felt it travel through her body,  _ within _ her body, but she could feel something else felt the sensation the same way you would search for a light switch in the dark, not knowing what's there but letting your fingers encounter it.

She felt it as clearly as the blood pumping through her body; she could feel it pulsing and beating, running through her. And without knowing how she knew it, she was positive that it was her magic, running through her. She could feel its core, right in the center of her chest, beating away like another heart sending magic to her body. She felt another thing, nestled in the middle of her magic's core, a spherical thing, it just seemed to stay there, not beating, not pulsing, just  _ there _ . The same instinct that told her what her magic was came through again.  _ My soul. That's my soul. _

The sensation began as suddenly as it had started, as if the lights had suddenly switched back on, but you still knew exactly what was in the previously dark room. She could still sense her magic, could still feel it pumping through her veins, tingling on the surface of her skin, pulsing in her chest, along with her soul, still sitting there. It felt almost warm. Lily stood there, hands to her chest, gasping in shock and awe. Her mind reeled, her thoughts a jumble.

She almost didn't notice the mannequin raising its arm to fire another spell. She tensed as the mannequin fired yet another spell. She knew she would never be able to cast a charm in time she felt what she thought was a rush of adrenaline and braced for the impact of the curse, but it never came. An instinctive shield suddenly expanded from her body, and the spell rebounded, the mannequin staggering back a few steps from the force of it. Lily stared at the wand in her hand, that was still clutching her chest, and back at the mannequin. A grin forming on her face.

She raised her wand.  _ "Impedimenta!"  _ she shouted grinning as the dummy slowed, coming almost to a full stop. Just as she was about to send another spell at the mannequin, disarming it, Professor Fogsburn's voice rang through the dueling hall. "Wands away!" he shouted, and with a flick of his own wand he sent the mannequins flying to the back of the hall lined up in a neat order. "You all would have been dead by now if those were real Death Eaters in a real battle. I thought that at least one of you would have defeated a wooden doll by now." Fogsburn's eyes met her own as he continued, "Apparently I was wrong." He looked away from Lily and checked his wristwatch. "Class dismissed."

Lily stormed out of the class fuming.  _ Stupid wooden mannequin! Stupid Fogsburn! Thinks I can do anything since I was the only one to find something wrong with his stupid speech! He didn't even _ know _ what happened! I was  _ seconds _ away from defeating it! _

She stormed down the corridor, knowing Teddy was there without looking. He was always there, but today he seemed to be very tired, nodding off in nearly every class, looking even more pale and sickly than normal. Several times that day Lily had asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital wing, but he refused saying he would be better in a few days.

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye now. He was very pale, sweating slightly with a pinched pained look on his face. She decided she was going to put what happened in dueling class out of her head for the moment and focus on her friend, who was clearly sick. Besides, becoming aware of your magic was probably common amongst wizards, and she could think about it later. Instead of following Katie and Cora who were a few steps ahead of them heading to potions class, Lily took a right turn instead of the left that lead to the classroom she and Teddy were supposed to be in. "Where are we going?" even Teddy's voice sounded weak. "The classroom was over there."

"I know. We are going to the hospital wing, it's that or I go to your parents."

"I've  _ told _ you, I feel _ fine. _ "

"And I've told  _ you  _ I'm not buying a word of it." She pulled open one of the double doors and glared at him. "In."

He stood there, glaring at her for a few moments before stomping inside, muttering under his breath. Lily followed, trying (unsuccessfully) to wipe the smug smirk on her face.

Inside, the Head Matron was in her office, and the subhead Matron (Mary Smith, a kind woman with red hair that was now mostly gray) was bustling around, straightening already straight books, and fluffing already fluffed pillows. There were rows of hospital beds, all empty except one. "Professor Lupin!" Lily had to fight to keep the surprise out of her voice. It didn't work. "What are you doing here?"

Professor Lupin looked up from his newspaper. He looked even worse than Teddy did but still smiled good naturedly at her. "Ah Hello Lily. I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. Ted I thought you were feeling fine?" Lupin eyed his son in concern. "Your mother will be upset if you've lied to her."

Teddy grumbled and gestured in Lily's direction. "She made me come." He skulked as he dumped his bag on the bed next to his father.

Lupin's lips twitched. "Yes, your mother had the same idea with me."

"Well," said Lily smirking, "women always know best."

Teddy glared at her. Lily's smirk grew wider.

Professor Lupin laughed. "Indeed."

"Professor, if you're in here who's gonna be teaching your class?" Lily asked.

"Ah, Professor Amicus. He has a free period and said he'd stand in for me. He's a nice bloke." He paused, smiling giving her a knowing look. "But shouldn't you be in class?"

Lily frowned. "Yes Professor." She said in a sulking tone. She picked up her bag, and said "see you later Ted."

"Yeah," he grinned. "Bye Flower."

Lily hurried out of the hospital wing and was almost out of breath by the time she reached potions class. "Sorry I'm late Professor, I had to stop by the hospital wing."

"Oho! Lily! It's no problem, no problem at'll!" Slughorn said merrily, "You're a bright witch, I'm sure you can catch up with the rest of the class."

"Thank you Professor." Lily said as she sat down and began brewing the Hiccupping Potion that was today's classwork, making sure to take good notes so Teddy could use them the next day.

But Teddy wasn't in school the next day. Lily tried to go visit him in the hospital wing at lunch, but was shooed away by Madam Smith: "He's  _ ill!  _ He needs  _ rest  _ and you hanging about pestering him is  _ not  _ going to help!" she huffed, and slammed the hospital wings’ doors in Lily's face.

Teddy wasn't the only one missing in class that day. Once again, Professor Lupin was absent and Amicus was in his place. Amicus was kind enough, and a good teacher but nothing compared to Professor Lupin. He was very tall, and his blonde head would have towered over even Lupin. He was fun, and constantly cracking jokes, something Teddy would have liked. Although when the class was taking notes, Lily looked up to see Amicus staring out the window, face crumpled in pain showing that even the most cheerful still hurt.

Later that night as she was sitting down, preparing to finish her charms essay, with Katie and Cora when Teddy walked through the Common Room door, a gigantic bruise dominating the left side of his face. "Holy Hell!" Lily exclaimed as he sat down next to her. "What the bloody hell happened to you?"

"Got caught by a couple of older Slytherins coming out of the hospital wing." He grunted. "Doesn't matter though."

Katie frowned. "That looked like it hurt."

"Must have been one hell of a punch if it showed up that fast." Cora said.

Teddy shrugged, "Like I said, it doesn't matter."

" _ Doesn't matter?"  _ Lily echoed. "You got the living shit beat out of you by a couple of older wankers who thought they were better than you and it  _ doesn't matter?" _

"It was a punch, and it most certainly did not  _ beat the living shit  _ out of me, and all three of them are currently dangling upside down in the charms corridor so no, it does not matter."

A feeling of unease settled in her stomach. Lily couldn't shake the feeling that Teddy was lying to her. She wondered if she should say anything, but in the end decided against it and pushed her notes across the table to him. "'ere, you can copy these."

"Thanks Flower." They worked in silence, only the occasional question asked or swear word uttered, it was never uncomfortable though.

During Teddy's absence she had been trying to find out more about what had happened to her in dueling class, but there weren't any books in the library about it. She learned that the feeling often faded, but if she concentrated on her heartbeat, it would come back. It never fully faded, just became less noticeable.

Eventually Katie and Cora got tired and returned to their dormitories muttering sleepy goodnights. When the last student had cleared from the Common Room Teddy looked up and asked, "Are we gonna go out mapping tonight?"

"Are you up for it?" she asked eyeing his still weary form.

He snorted. "Course! Now common, are we going or not?" he asked, "We've got to be more careful though, last time was a close call."

Lily bit her lip. So far she had heeded her mother's words and told no one about the cloak, but Teddy had quickly become her best friend, not replacing Oliver, he would never replace Oliver, but he was now, without-a-doubt her best friend. Katie and Cora were good friends, but there was still a shadow of the rivalry that had once existed between the three and there were things she told Teddy that she would never tell Katie or Cora. She still loved Katie and Cora, but Teddy she could trust with her life.

"Teddy," she said abruptly, cutting off what he was saying, "do you trust me?"

He blinked. "Of course Flower."

"Do you trust me with your life?"

He looked concerned now. "Yes Lily, of course. Why? Is something wrong? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she smiled at him reassuringly and he visibly relaxed, "just stay here for a moment; I need to go get something. I'll be right back."

She rushed down the stairs to her Dormitory and rummaged through her duffel bag, cursing under her breath. When she had grabbed the cloak, she ran back upstairs and stopped in front of Teddy. "You have to  _ swear,"  _ She said seriously, "on your  _ life  _ that you won't tell no one 'bout this, ever."

Although Teddy looked confused he said with meaning, "I swear."

Lily smiled, "Good." and let the invisibility cloak unfold and fall to the ground in a cascade of silver folds.

'Merlin," Teddy breathed, eyes wide and fixed on the cloak, "How…?"

"My Mum bought it at the Black Market and gave it to me to keep me safe but told me not to tell anyone about it unless I trusted them with my life."

"Wicked." Teddy grinned, "One of my Dad's friends had a cloak like this. Oh and er, thanks. For you know… er… trusting me."

Lily smiled. "Any time. Now come on, we've got a school to map."

They threw the cloak over their heads and exited the common room, passing under the lion statue that growled when it could see no one. When they were out of earshot Lily muttered, "What floor were we on again?"

"Er… the eighth I think. Yeah, the eighth, we'd just finished mapping the seventh."

"And how many floors are there again?"

"Er… nine. Not counting the dungeons and the kitchen."

"Amazing we've done all that work in a little over three weeks." Lily said as they made their way to the sixth floor.

"Yeah well when you do it nearly every sodding day…"

"Well it's good to know all about the underground cave you're trapped in."

"Don't sound too optimistic."

"Never."

They wandered around the eighth floor, going into each room, Lily carefully adding each room to the map. There was one point were the tunnel split off in two directions, left and right. Teddy and Lily looked at each other.

"Which way?" Teddy asked.

"Er…" Lily looked both directions; the right tunnel broke off to the transfiguration corridor, lit with torches and the left stretched on, dark and unlit. "Left."

" _ Left!"  _ Teddy whined. "I didn't think you'd actually choose it! There's nothing down there anyway except an old door that no one's been able to open since the school was built."

Lily was curious but she snorted at the pouting look on Teddy's face. "Fine you prat, we'll go right. Happy now?"

"Overjoyed."

They continued down the corner heading towards one of the classrooms. Lily opened the door which admitted a small creak. The door swung open and Teddy rushed in, tripping over the hem of the cloak and tumbling out, pulling it off of Lily. "Oi, watch it you idiot!" she said, stuffing the cloak in her bag. "What if someone saw that?" Teddy smiled apologetically from the ground.

"Yes indeed. What if someone  _ did  _ see that?" said an unknown voice.

Lily jumped and with a scream, spun around while Teddy scrambled up from the ground. The voice belonged to a tall dark haired boy who looked to be in at least seventh year and wearing Slytherin robes who was lounging carelessly on one of the desks, with three of his friends standing behind him, Lily recognized a girl who had made fun of Cora at dinner. One of the boys had his sleeves rolled up, exposing the Dark Mark branded onto his arm.

Lily's breath caught in her throat, a mix of fear and hate rising within her. Teddy seemed to have frozen staring at the Dark Mark with a mix of disgust, fear and horror on his face.

The one with the Dark Mark visible smirked at the sight of them and smiled. "Now what have we here?" he drawled. He smirked again and in a baby voice said, "Ickle Firsties out of bed?" they took a step closer to where Lily and Teddy were standing, the dark haired boy jumping down from the desk, his combat boots slamming on the ground, the noise sounding defining in the tense silence. "Ickle Firsties," the other boy continued, "shouldn't be wandering around, walking in on things they shouldn't." he gave a smile that would have been angelic if not for the wicked gleam in his eye and the Dark Mark standing out on his pale arm. "Otherwise," he said in a deadly sweet tone, "they can get hurt."

Lily whispered in Teddy's ear, "Run." And they did.

Their combat boots pounded the floor as they thundered down the corridor, the Death Eaters not far behind. Lily twisted around and screamed " _ Locomotor Mortis!"  _ she heard one of them swear as her spell flew by the girl's head, but she did not slow.

" _ Incarcerous!"  _ The dark haired boy roared.

Lily ducked as conjured ropes flew just over her head and through the air wrapping themselves around a statue only a foot from her. " _ Petrificus Totalus!"  _ Lily heard one of them hit the ground but didn't turn to watch instead she kept running.

Suddenly as she and Teddy rounded a corner, everything went dark. She screamed to Teddy, "Keep running!  _ Lumos!"  _ she cried, and the tip of her wand glowed white-blue. They hurtled forward until Lily smacked head first into a door. "Open it!" she screamed at Teddy. He yanked it open, shoved her inside, and slammed it shut after them.

Lily quickly scrambled from the ground and went to help him brace the door. "Lock it!" she shrieked at Teddy as a body slammed into the door from the other side making the door shudder under their touch.

"There's no lock!" he screamed.

"FUCK!" Lily heard the Death exclaim, "It won't open!"

"You idiot! They're first years! All they did was lock it!" said the voice of the one who mocked them.

"I  _ heard  _ them say there was no lock!"

"Well they can't stay there forever Sebastian! It's your entire fault we're in this mess anyway! If you had just put your bloody sleeves down-"

"Oh shut up Lester! Just take Lucian and go unfreeze Isabelle would you?"

Lester's footsteps faded down the corridor as Sebastian paced outside the door. "You can't stay in there forever Ickle Firsties," he hissed at the door, behind which Teddy and Lily stood breathing heavily on the other side. "Eventually you will come out and we will kill you."

Lily shivered, and slowly stepped back from the door, with a nod to Teddy telling him to do the same. He slowly released the handle and stepped back, standing next to her staring at the door as it shuddered under Sebastian's attacks, but never gave. "Why can't they get to us?" Teddy asked in a hushed whisper.

"I dunno." She said. She took a shaky breath and looked around, the only light coming from the tip of her wand. Her heart was racing and she could feel it pulsating along with her magic, but this time it felt different. Instead of ending at her fingertips, her magic coursed through her wand and ended at its tip. She stared at it, turning it over in her hands as an idea struck her. She took a deep breath and felt the magic coursing through her to her wand and  _ willed  _ the magic to extend from her wand. The light at the tip of her wand stretched, shimmering and swaying in the air like smoke. She willed her magic to abruptly stop at her wand tip, and the string of light disconnected from her wand and hung in the air, before shaping and forming a sphere that floated above their heads.

Teddy stared at it in shock, mouth agape, "H-How in the  _ hell  _ did you  _ do  _ that?"

"When I was in class the other day I got hit by a spell and I felt it ripple through my magic core next to my soul." Lily answered shortly.

Teddy stared at her. "You sound like Luna Lovegood."

Lily sighed exasperated "I don't  _ know  _ who the hell that is! I don't know about Hairy Porter or Moody Eye or Dumb Door or any of those people you talk about!"

" _ Harry Potter _ , _ Mad Eye Moody  _ and  _ Dumbledore."  _ Teddy said infuriated and a little wounded.

Lily sighed. "Okay. Look, I'm sorry alright mate? I'm just frustrated and scared and we're trapped, but snapping at each other won't help."

Teddy nodded, "I'm sorry too." He got up and hugged her, and at first she stiffened, unused to people besides Ginevra hugging her, not even Oliver had done that, but she relaxed and returned the hug.

"Where the hell are we by the way?" Teddy asked peering around. "It's just a dark tunnel."

Lily took out the unfinished map of Fogsburn. "Well we found those sodding wankers in this classroom," she said pointing at the map, "and we ran down here," her finger travelled down the map, "to the fork in the tunnel. We must have gone down the left turn."

"But that's impossible!" Teddy exclaimed. "That tunnel is a dead end!"

"No." Lily's brow furrowed, "You said there was a door-"

"-That no one could ever open." They finished together.

Lily looked at Teddy. "Holy shit." She whispered.

They both looked at the door, then in the other direction where a new tunnel lay ahead. "So… okay… we're behind the door that no one can open… now… what do we… er…  _ do _ exactly?" Teddy asked.

"Well you may be as content as a cucumber to wait for them to break down that door and kill us, but not me."

"But we don't even know where this tunnel goes."

"Exactly."

He smiled. "Knew there was a reason I was best friends with you."

"Cheers to that."

"But… what about the Death Eaters?"

Lily looked at the door. "There's not much we can do."

"True. Alright, let's go."

Lily picked up her bag, and together, Lily and Teddy started off down the tunnel, the orb of light following overhead. The tunnel continued straight for a while until it began to slope upward. After about ten minutes of this, walking began to get hard, and after twenty their legs were aching and their breath came in gasps. "How… long," Lily panted, "Can this… go on?"

Teddy wiped sweat from his brow. "No… idea."

"Let's… hope it's not… to far off." After they had caught their breath they continued the trek.

Not to long after, the tunnel stopped.

Dead end.

Nothing.

"What!" Lily shouted in outrage, "That's it!" she stormed up to the offending wall knowing it would do no good yelling at an empty wall but she did it anyway. "We walk all the way here and there's nothing even at the end!" she punched the wall in frustration.  _ THUMP. _

Ignoring the pain in her had, she was about to open her mouth and yell at the wall some more, when Teddy interrupted her. "Hang on," he said pressing his ear to the wall. "That's not the sound stone makes." He raised his fist, and knocked three times on the wall. A hollow,  _ KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK  _ sounded with each blow.

Lily and Teddy stared at each other, eyes wide. "A… door?" Lily whispered. Simultaneously, they both started clawing at the wall, clumps of rock and dirt falling from their hands and landing on their previously polished combat boots. Soon, Lily's fingers encountered something other than stone, and with her wand she directed the orb closer so she could see. "Wood! It  _ is  _ a door!"

Their clawing became more rushed until their hands were blackened with dirt and Lily was sure she would never get the dirt out from under her nails, but about five minutes after they started, they both stepped back and stared at the door they had uncovered.

They turned to each other grinning, both with smudges of dirt on their faces. "Shall we?" Teddy smirked and offered his elbow; Lily laughed and linked her arm through his.

With a grunt, Lily pushed open the door, wide enough so they could both step through, and poked her head around the corner. With the orb shining by the ceiling, casting and odd glow about the room, Lily stared as Teddy slid through and stood beside her. "It's- It's an office." Teddy said surprised.

And indeed it was. There were ancient filing cabinets stacked up against the walls, stacks of dust covered books spread about randomly, and a table piled high with stacks of ageing yellowed paper. There was a door on the other side of the room, but they could see nothing through the panel of warped glass imbedded in it.

They walked through the room, their combat boots raising small puffs of dust with each step. Teddy reached the door first and pulled it open, the hinges squeaking. "It's a  _ library!" _

"What?" Lily shoved the door open wider and stared.

It was indeed a library and everything seemed to have a thick layer of dust on covering it, while cobwebs hung from the ceiling. It was bigger than any library Lily had ever seen or even imagined. It was nearly triple the size of Ollivanders wand shop. "My God," Lily whispered, "it  _ is."  _ The orb still hung in the air, admitting light that spilled over the room, and cast creepy shadows on the walls. "This is… amazing! Imagine all the stuff we could learn from these!" she exclaimed, picking up the nearest book and blowing dust off its cover. " _ Quidditch Through the Ages! _ See? I hadn't even  _ heard  _ of that before!"

"I know!" Teddy pulled another one down, " _ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,  _ I've actually heard of this one before." Lily thought he had a kind of angered, disgusted, sad undertone to his voice, but she shook off the feeling as he continued in a bright voice, "Look! There's a whole section about Harry Potter!" he ran over to another bookshelf and pulled down a scarlet book, " _ Fallen Heroes _ ! Merlin! It has Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and all the Weasleys! Even Ginny Weasley! She tends to get left out quite a bit it's rather sad. She has a really good biography in here though. Brilliant!" He said flipping through the pages.

"Who are all these people?" Lily asked, looking over his shoulder at a black and white photograph of a man with a heavily scarred face, a chunk missing out of his nose, and a much enlarged eye glaring at them, the normal eye blinking. "My God! What's wrong with his  _ face!" _

"That is Mad Eye Moody. One of the most famous Aurors of all time, he broke the record for most Dark Wizards caught in a lifetime. He got kind of paranoid towards the end though, convinced everything was about to attack him." Teddy flipped to another page. "This is Sirius Black," the picture showed a man with yellowed skin and sunken eyes laughing at the camera, "the first known person ever to escape the wizarding prison Azkaban. He was convicted of turning over his best friends to the Dark Lord, but he'd never. It was really his other friend Peter Pettigrew. Black is also Harry Potter's Godfather, and was one of my Dad's best mates." He looked at the page sadly. "I've heard so many stories 'bout him, some that no one will ever know." Teddy shook himself and flipped to another page. The next picture showed an old man with both long hair and beard with a crooked nose and half moon glasses. He was smiling, and Lily found it unnerving that the photo's eyes gave her the impression he was staring right through her. "This is Albus Dumbledore. He was one of the most powerful wizards of all time, brilliant according to my dad, but a bit cracked too. Had an obsession with lemon drops he did. He was most famous for the defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald in 1945. That must've been hard for him though, they were best friends when they were young."

"He was best friends with a  _ Dark Wizard?"  _ Lily exclaimed, "Why?"

"Well he  _ was _ in love with him, so when you're in love you tend to overlook things I guess."

Lily was surprised, "Wow, and he still killed him?"

"No, just defeated him in a duel, and won the most powerful wand of all time, the elder wand." He pointed to Dumbledore's picture, "See? He's got it in his hand."

"So where is it now?"

"The Dark Lord has it."

"Voldemort." Lily automatically corrected, "And bloody hell, if he has the most powerful wand in existence, why are we even trying?"

"It is possible to beat someone who has the elder wand, Dumbledore did it after all." Teddy continued, "Anyway" he flipped through more pages, "This is Hermione Granger." The picture showed a pretty young girl with bushy hair smiling shyly at the camera, waving. "She was one of Harry Potter's best friends and helped him go on this mission to try and defeat the Dark Lord. She was really smart, reminds me a lot of Katie actually." The pages flipped again and landed on the picture of a freakily boy smirking at them. "This is Ron Weasley, the picture doesn't show it, but he's got red hair. He's another one of Harry's friends. He was really loyal to Harry and Hermione and helped them on the mission too. Ron and Hermione were in love before they were both murdered."

"But hang on, they're just kids!"

"Yeah, they got forced out of childhood early."

"What was the mission they went on?"

"No one knows." Teddy flipped to the back of the book, and landed on a picture of a skinny boy with messy black hair, round rimmed glasses, and a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He frowned at the camera, looking annoyed at the attention, and swiveled his head around as if to look at the walls. "This," said Teddy, admiration shining through his voice, "is Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived."

"I thought he was dead?"

"He is. But when he was one year old, there was a prophecy made about a child that would be born at the end of July with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord."

"And it referred to him?" Lily asked gesturing at the photo.

"Him and Neville Longbottom."

"Wait, Neville Longbottom, as in our  _ teacher?" _

"Yeah. So anyway, the Dark Lord targets the Potters. On Halloween of 1981 goes to their home and immediately kills James, and Lily is-"

"Lily?"

"Yes she has the same name as you, now shut up. So anyway, Lily is upstairs with Harry and she'd left her wand downstairs so she was defenseless. The Dark Lord goes up there and orders her to move out of the way, and she can live, but she wouldn't do it. She kept pleading with him not to hurt Harry, and to kill her instead so eventually the Dark Lord gets irritated and kills her. He moves in on Harry's crib, points the wand in his face and…  _ BAM!"  _ Teddy clapped his hands together loudly, causing Lily to jump, "the spell backfires. Lily's love saved him."

"Wow." Said Lily in awe, "He  _ survived  _ the killing curse?"

"Yup! Only person known to do it too. So the Dark Lord disappeared that night, wounded badly and Harry became savior of the wizarding world at one year old. Funny thing was he didn't even  _ know  _ he was a wizard until he was eleven!"

"Wait, but the Dark Lord didn't even die."

"Yeah well no one  _ knew  _ that of course. Except Dumbledore and a few others, and even then they didn't really know they just suspected."

"Well, how did Voldemort come back?"

"Well in Harry's first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's friend Nicolas Flamel asked him to hide his Philosopher's Stone at the school to keep it safe. Well originally, Harry Ron and Hermione thought that their Potions Professor was after the stone 'cause he hated all three of them. So they figure out he was going to steal the stone and go to tell Dumbledore, but he isn't there and none of the other teachers believe them, so they go and try to stop the Professor. But when they get to the chamber where the stone is at, they see the teachers put all sorts of enchantments to protect the stone, so they had to get through all of them. Ron got knocked unconscious when they defeated the giant chess board, and Hermione solved Snape's potion riddle but had to go back because only one could pass which left Harry to go on and defeat his Potions Professor, only it wasn't him, it was really their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had been a servant of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named all along and had Voldemort bursting out of the back of his head. But Harry defeated him and prevented him from rising to power."

"Bloody hell," Lily said, now staring at the photo with new admiration, "To think, he was the same age as we are."

"Yeah, but his story gets better. So his second year, before he goes to school, a house elf shows up at his house and warns him not to go to Hogwarts that year. Of course Harry says he'll still go even if it will be dangerous, and the house elf won't even tell him why because he was ordered by his family not to. So when Harry says no, the house elf casts a hovering charm and drops cake all over Harry's Uncle's house guests and gets Harry in trouble with the ministry and his family who tell him he can't go back to school. So they lock him in his room and put bars over the window-"

"They  _ what?" _

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention; his Aunt, Uncle and cousin all hate him."

"Why?"

"They hated all wizards. Anyway, so Dobby the house elf had been blocking his mail, so Ron got worried and came to get him in a flying car in the middle of the night with his two older twin brothers. Harry stayed at the Weasley's house for the remainder of the summer, and at the start of term when they go to platform 9 3/4 Mr. and Mrs. Weasley go on first to get their younger daughter on the train, and when Harry and Ron try to run through the barrier, they can't. So they fly the car to Hogwarts and crash the car into a giant tree that beats up anything that goes near it and nearly get expelled. But they don't of course, and during the school year students would get petrified and Harry was suspected because he's a Parselmouth, which means you can talk to snakes." Teddy said in response to Lily's confused look, "But of course it wasn't him, it turned out that it was actually Ron's younger sister Ginny who had been possessed by a piece of the Dark Lord himself, hidden in a diary that was full of dark magic. She was forced to set a basilisk on the students, luckily no one was killed, just Petrified, so she was forced to go down to the chamber where the diary fed off of her and started to reform the Dark Lord. But Harry found out and showed up in time to kill the basilisk and stop the Dark Lord from rising again.

"So the next year he's back at his Aunt's house and his Uncle's sister is coming to stay for a while and she hates Harry even more than they do. So the day she arrives, the escape of Sirius Black is all over the Muggle news, and of course this doesn't mean anything to Harry. Yet. Marge comes over, and at dinner she starts insulting Harry's parents, all sorts of horrible stuff, and Harry loses it. He blows her up-"

"He  _ killed _ her?"

"What? No! He just blew her up like a balloon. So of course his family freaks out and he runs away, leaving Marge bobbing on the ceiling and his family running around like headless chickens. He accidentally hails The Knight Bus and learns from it's conductor that Sirius Black was really a wizard criminal, convicted of betraying his best friends to the Dark Lord and blowing up a whole muggle street, killing thirteen people after murdering one of his best friends. Everyone thinks that he escaped to kill Harry, and Harry finds out that the people Sirius betrayed were really Harry's parents, and that Black was his Godfather. Harry was furious of course, and swore he'd kill Sirius as soon as he looked at him. But then they went down to the gamekeeper's house to comfort him about his pet hippogriff that was scheduled to be executed that day, and on the way back Ron got attacked by a giant black dog and dragged under the Whomping Willow and through a secret passageway that lead to an abandoned building called the Shrieking Shack along with his pet rat Scabbers. So of course Harry and Hermione go in after him. Well the dog turns out to actually be Sirius Black and they find out that my Dad, Sirius, James and Peter were best friends and school; they were always together and formed this group of pranksters that they called the Marauders. Earlier that year Harry had gotten a magical map of Hogwarts called The Marauder's Map and that they had created it. My dad was Moony, Peter was Wormtail, Sirius was Padfoot, and James was Prongs; the nicknames they got from their animagus form. So Harry Ron and Hermione still think at this point that Sirius is the murderer and were about to attack him, but then my Dad bursts in, and tells them that Sirius never betrayed Lily and James and that the real traitor was Peter Pettigrew."

"What? But isn't he dead?"

"Hold on! I'm getting to that bit! Unknown to his friends Peter had become a Death Eater and a spy, but his friends all still loved him, so Lily and James trusted him with their location, but told everybody else that Sirius was the one who knew it. So when Lily and James were killed, everyone thought it was Sirius, so Sirius, hell bent on revenge, went to go track down and kill Peter. But before he could get the chance, Peter blew up the whole street and transformed into a rat, leaving Sirius to rot in Azkaban. So twelve years pass and then, Sirius sees Peter in the paper, as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. So he escapes to go after him, not Harry. So they transform Peter into a human and are on the way to the castle when Snape shows up and almost ruins it all. But then Harry stunned him and demanded they tell him what was going on. So they tell him and Harry finally see's Sirius is innocent and they decide to bring Wormtail up to the castle to clear Sirius's name. But…"

"What?"

"Oh, err… I just forgot what happens next, but I remember now. So then Snape come out and starts cursing everyone, and in the confusion Wormtail knocks out my Dad then escapes, the dementors go after Sirius, and Harry passes out. So when he wakes up, Hermione tells him they're going to give Sirius the Dementor's Kiss and suck his soul out of his mouth." Teddy paused and smirked at Lily's horrified expression. "But then they use Hermione's Time Turner and go back in time and save Sirius and the gamekeeper's hippogriff."

Lily whistled. "Bloody hell."

"Yeah, but there's more. In his fourth year, Hogwarts hosted the Triwizard Tournament, a tournament where three different magical schools come together and compete. Each school had a champion of seventeen, and those champions would have to compete in three dangerous tasks to become the Triwizard Champion. So the champions were Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter."

"But wait, I thought you said there were only three champions! And they had to be seventeen, and if Harry was only in his fourth year then he was only fourteen!"

"Well someone entered his name illegally. So Harry had to endure the three tasks, but he had a little help from Mad-Eye Moody."

"The bloke with the scarred face?"

"That's the one. In the first task, he has to defeat a dragon and get a golden egg from it, (and from what I hear he did it using one of the fastest brooms ever made,  _ and _ his flying even rivaled Viktor Krum's!) in the second task, he had only an hour to find and save Ron in the black lake, and in the third task he had to get through an enchanted Maze with all sorts of magical creatures and curses. But while he was in the Maze, he came across a bewitched Viktor torturing Cedric, so he disarms Viktor and he and Diggory decide to go their separate ways, and soon after they're racing each other to the Triwizard Champion Cup, when a giant spider launches itself out of the hedges and attacks Harry. Diggory would've gone on, but he remembered how Harry saved him, so he stopped and did the same. When they finally get to the cup, both refuse to take it, so they come to an agreement to both take the cup. But when they grab hold, they find out the cup is a portkey that had taken them to a graveyard that Harry recognized from the nightmares. Peter Pettigrew appears from behind a tombstone, carrying an almost dead He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and kills Cedric and ties Harry to You-Know-Who's father's tombstone and uses his blood to once again rise to power. He ends up escaping, dueling the Dark Lord and finding out about the connection of the twin wands."

Lily felt a shiver run throughout her body. In a rather high voice she said, "Voldemort killed Cedric with _ my  _ wand?"

"Remember Flower, the wielder decides the wand's fate."

Lily rolled her wand between her dirt encrusted, dusty fingers. "I know. What happens next?"

"Well after that, no one besides Dumbledore and Harry's friends believed that He-Who-Must-Be-Named returned. Dumbledore organizes a group called the Order of the Phoenix, a group that was around since the first war, trying to find ways to stop the Dark Lord."

"Well why don't we go to them for help?"

"They were wiped out at the end of the second war. Professor McGonagall and my parents are the last of them I think."

"Oh my God. Haven't they tried to start it up again?"

"Course. Only problem is, their secret keeper was murdered; they can't find their way back to headquarters without him being able to tell them where it is."

"So that's why they started the resistance."

"Yeah, so Dumbledore restarts The Order making Sirius's old house headquarters. Only now, the old Ministry of Magic started getting paranoid, so out of fear they target Order members, but especially Dumbledore and Harry and they even go so far as to plans spies in Hogwarts. At the beginning of the year, Harry starts having visions, sent to him by the Dark Lord, so Dumbledore made him take Occlumency lessons with Snape, but with Snape at his teacher he obviously wasn't doing so well, so he only continued to have the dreams. With the Ministry spy at the school, posing as their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the students weren't learning anything, and with the Dark Lord back, Harry Ron and Hermione thought they should learn how to defend themselves, so they create the group Dumbledore's Army and start training kids how to fight back. Then Harry learns that there was a prophecy made about Harry and the Dark Lord."

"What did it say?"

"I dunno. My dad never told me, if he even knows is anyone's guess. But Harry found out about it, and knew that the Dark Lord would do anything to get it, because he only knew the first part of the prophecy. Then Harry got a vision of Sirius being tortured in the Hall of Prophecies in the Department of Mysteries within the Ministry of Magic. So Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom rushed off to the Department of Mysteries to save him, only he wasn't there. It was all a trap set up by the Dark Lord to get the prophecy. So they fight the Death Eaters, and try to escape and just when the Death Eaters almost get the prophecy, The Order shows up, and they start winning, but then one of the worst Death Eaters ever, Bellatrix Lestrange, kills Sirius right in front of Harry. Harry runs after her, into the Ministry lobby but doesn't get a chance to duel her because the Dark Lord is waiting for him. Just as he's about to curse Harry, Dumbledore shows up and duels him and saves Harry.

"Then in his sixth year, Harry goes back to school knowing the prophecy and promised lessons from Dumbledore. We dunno what for though; he never told anyone, expect maybe Ron and Hermione. This is when his story starts to get vague, whatever Dumbledore taught Harry never left his office but my dad thinks it had something to do with killing the Dark Lord. But in his sixth year, his classmate, Draco Malfoy, got forced into being a Death Eater, but of course, no one knew it back then. Harry always suspected Malfoy, they had never gotten along in school; but no one would believe him. Malfoy was potting a way to kill Dumbledore and had tried several times but instead had harmed another girl and almost killed Ron. Then one day, Harry and Dumbledore disappeared from the school, and Malfoy figured out how to let Death Eaters inside the school. My Dad was at the school, and he and my Mum were ambushed. While he was fighting Death Eaters he heard someone say that Harry and Dumbledore were up on the North Tower, but the next thing he knew, Harry was running past him after Snape and Malfoy screaming that Snape killed Dumbledore."

"And he just dies? What happened?"

"No one knows. Harry wouldn't tell anyone about it, and the next year he Ron and Hermione disappeared on their mission and no one saw them until the battle of Hogwarts. The last thing my dad ever heard from him was; 'There are seven and three. We got five, but there are seven. We found all three but they are lost.' And when my Dad asked what he meant, Harry just told him that he couldn't say and then he ran away and was killed only ten minutes later."

"How'd he die?"

"The Dark Lord got a hold of Ginny, his girlfriend, and he surrendered."

"He surrendered? After all he went through… he just  _ gave up?" _

Teddy looked at her sadly. "It's not that simple, he loved her. Isn't there anyone you'd die for?"

Lily thought about it. Was there? Oliver was already dead… she knew that if she and Ginevra were in a life and death situation she wouldn't let Lily die for her. Would she die for Teddy? He was her best friend, but really how long had she known him for? She'd known Oliver for years… "I dunno," she said out loud, "What about you."

He was silent for a second, looking at her. But then he replied, "I don't know. Maybe."

Lily wasn't paying much attention at the moment. Her head was spinning. Harry Potter! A real hero! A child who stood up to Voldemort, just as she'd always wanted to do. She scanned the Library, taking in the rows and rows of books, the rounded tables, the enchanted windows, and the  _ space! _ It was just so big! They could have the whole Gryffindor house in here and still be comfortable.

_ We could use this space  _ she thought suddenly  _ we could just come up here and read the spell books. We could learn how to fight! Just like Harry!  _ She turned to Teddy and said, "Think about what we could learn! All the spells in these books! We could get  _ ahead _ in classes! We could learn how to fight!"

Teddy looked at her, a grin forming on his face. "We could! We could come here at night and practice! Within a few months who knows what we'll learn! Just wait until Katie and Cora hear about this!"

Lily froze. She knew it was selfish, but she didn't want to tell Katie, Cora or anyone else about the library. In the camp, she had secret places that only she and Oliver knew about, places where if she was feeling overwhelmed she could just go there, and sometimes Oliver would come and they would just sit, enjoying each other's company. And now Oliver was dead, and Lily was at Fogsburn where she didn't have a place to call her own. And she wanted one desperately, and this place seemed so perfect.

"Teddy," she began hesitantly, 'can we  _ not  _ tell anyone about the Library?" at his confused look she said in a rush, "I mean, the door opened for  _ us. _ No one else could open it, and doesn't it just feel special? Like it accepted us?" she pleaded with him to understand, "Can't we just have this place to call our own?"

Teddy looked at her and smiled. "Okay Flower. A place of our own." They grinned rather stupidly at each other and Lily thought she would be miserable without the boy standing next to her. In the short amount of time that she had known him, he had already helped her so much; he'd helped turn the pain of Oliver's death to an agonizing wound, to a dull ache in her heart. Without warning she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.

He laughed and hugged her back and they stayed that way for several moments until Lily said, "What do we do now?"

He looked at her solemnly. "We have to find a way around those Death Eaters."

"Right." Lily said, a look of concentration on her face. "Well if Harry Potter can face Voldemort in his first year, we can get past a few Death Eaters."

Teddy jumped at Voldemort's name. "That's because he was  _ Harry Potter." _

"And I'm Lily Prewett." Lily started to walk briskly toward the way they had entered, Teddy hot on her heels.

"So what do we do?" Teddy panted as they half walked/ran down the tunnel that lead to the library.

"I've got a plan." Lily said, a smile forming on her lips.

Isabelle Williston stood in the same dark musty tunnel they'd been standing in for the last half hour, trying to figure out how to open the door the little brats had hid behind. Sodding Sebastian! The Wanker just had to have his sleeve up! Her own fingers traced the hem of her left sleeve, under which her own Dark Mark was branded into her skin. It had been the best day of her life when the Dark Lord had accepted her. She showed them, all of them, Sebastian, Lester and Lucian that she could be just as ruthless, just as cold hearted and murderous as they were even if she was a girl.

Sebastian and Lester were fighting again over the damn door, and the little idiots on the other side. Her blood quickly boiled, and she shoved the both of them out of the way marching up to the door. "  _ Alohomora!" _

Nothing.

Isabelle growled. " _ Confringo!" _ She screamed. Smoke suddenly filled the air as the spell made contact with the door, but when it cleared the door was still undamaged. "Fucking little shitheads!" She screamed, bringing her wand down on a series of whip like motions, each blow intended to leave a flaming scratch in the wood's surface; but it remained maddingly intact.

She was about to just set the whole bloody door on fire when she heard a scratching from the other side. She paused and then a glowing white mouse suddenly appeared from under the door and darted toward her feet.

Isabelle screamed. "Get it off! GET IT OFF!" she jumped backward and slammed into Sebastian who slammed into Lester, the both of them falling to the ground.

"Stop jumpin' around you stupid bitch!" Sebastian screamed from the floor, "you're gonna step on my face!"

"I hope I do you fuckin' bastard!" she screamed at him, spitting her hair out of her face, "shit! Shit where did it go?"

The door suddenly slammed open, sending Lucian flying into the wall, his face smacking the stone, he came to rest on the ground unconscious. Isabelle looked up, but no one was standing in the doorway, and a few seconds later the door slammed shut again.

"Fuck!" Lester yelled. "Fuck where are they?"

A voice, somewhere to Isabelle's right suddenly screamed " _ Locomotor Mortis!" _ and Lester's legs suddenly flew together as another voice screamed  _ "Expelliarmus!"  _ and Lester's wand went flying into the darkness.

"Oh shit!" she yelled as the spells that Sebastian sent in that direction encountered nothing, "Shit there's nothing even  _ there!" _

Then from the left: " _ Petrificus Totalus!" _ Sebastian suddenly straightened up, his arms and legs snapping to his sides, before he toppled over.

Isabelle was breathing hard now; she spun in a circle the tip of her lightened wand casting a glow about the tunnel. The last thing she remembered was her dark mark burning before a girl's voice yelled, " _ Stupefy!" _ And everything went black.

 


	8. The Map of Hogwarts

_ "What  _ were you two  _ thinking?" _ Professor Lupin's fist slammed down on the table while Professor Fogsburn sat behind his desk, his hands folded in front of his face which wore an expression of frustration, (and Lily thought) a little admiration. Remus glared at the two first years, "It was risky enough walking around the school at night, let alone fighting a group of Death Eaters! Teddy I've told you a million times how dangerous it is!  _ Why  _ would you even think twice about it?"

Teddy looked down at his feet, "Sorry Sir."

Lily glanced up through her lashes. "It's my fault Professor."

Professor Fogsburn's eyebrows rose. "How so?"

"You see Sir, I left my grandfather's pocket watch in the transfiguration classroom, and it's really very important and I knew that if anyone else saw it they'd take it, so you see, Professor, I just  _ had  _ to go get it."

"And the Death Eater spies were in the classroom?"

"Yes Sir, we didn't hear what they were planning though."

Fogsburn nodded, his eyes fixed on her face, "So did you find it?"

Lily blinked. "Find what Sir?"

"Your Grandfather's pocket watch of course."

_ Damn. _ Lily inwardly winced, but on the outside she merely nodded and said, "Yes Sir." She took it out of her pocket and rolled it in her palm, "See?"

Fogsburn eyed it for a moment then looked back at her face. "Very well. Twenty points will be taken from Gryffindor for being out of bed after hours." Teddy and Lily slumped in their chairs. "However," Lily looked up in surprise, "for your bravery and surprising skill, fifty points will be awarded." Lily and Teddy grinned at each other in surprise though Lupin frowned.

"Sir," Lily said, "What will happen to the Death Eaters?"

Fogsburn's eyes met Lupin's. "They will be dealt with accordingly."

"You mean you're going to kill them." Lily stated bluntly.

Fogsburn straightened in his chair. "Yes." He said just as bluntly.

Lily simply nodded. Death was not a new concept to her, and the deaths for the Death Eaters didn't bother her in the slightest but she noticed Teddy's face held traces of doubt.

"If I catch you out of bed again," Lupin threatened, I'll take double the points, understood?" They both nodded, "Especially you Teddy! You're still… ill."

Teddy stiffened. "I am  _ fine  _ dad!"

"You're still weak! This isn't something to be taken lightly Teddy!"

Lily was shocked at how cold and rebellious Teddy had suddenly become, all the humor was gone from his face. He glared at the armrest on his chair, the bruise on his face standing out, "I know! Considering all the extra  _ safety"  _ his lip curled on the word, "that you put into my well being."

Lupin's face practically went white. Fogsburn glanced between the two and said quietly, "Miss Prewett return to your dormitories immediately."

Lily glanced between Teddy and his father, "Sir-"

"That," Fogsburn snapped, "was an  _ order.  _ Remember you are eleven. A first year, not even a soldier yet. Now go." He said coldly.

Lily tensed and tightened her jaw, her fists curling. She glared at him and practically growled, "Yes,  _ Sir."  _ Lily stalked out of the room, only pausing to briefly touch Teddy's shoulder as she went. As soon as she was over the threshold, the door slammed shut behind her. She tried pressing her ear to the door to listen, but someone must have put a strong muting spell on the door.

She stood outside the door for a few more moments, thinking. It felt so wrong to leave one of her friends behind in a serious situation. If growing up in the camps taught you anything, it was loyalty to the few you could trust.  _ But,  _ Lily reminded herself,  _ this  _ isn't  _ the Camp, they aren't Death Eaters, and they wouldn't hurt Teddy in a million years, you're safe here,  _ actually _ safe.  _ With hesitation in her steps, she quietly backed away from the door and headed down the passageway to the Gryffindor common room.

The Common room was deserted when Lily got back, it was nearing four in the morning and classes started at eight. Lily knew she ought to go to bed, but instead she curled up in a chair next to the fireplace and waited for Teddy.

Lily was awoken by the sound of the Common Room door slamming. Her head jerked up from its slouched position on her chest just in time to see Teddy storm past her in a fury and disappear up the boy's dormitory staircase.

Lily immediately sprang up and followed him, swaying as the blood rushed back to her legs. Teddy had stormed into his dormitory and now lay sprawled on his bed, running his hand through his hair.

Lily carefully lay down next to him, their shoulders touching after a few moments of silence she asked, "Wanna talk about it?"

Teddy shook his head, "Not right now Flower."

Lily nodded, "Alright." There was another beat of silence before Lily spoke again, "Sorry for getting you in trouble. "

Teddy turned his head to look at her, "You didn't. My parents are just… overprotective. Harry was like a son to Dad, and considering what happened to him… well, my parents just don't want me to get hurt. It just frustrates me sometimes. Impossible to be safe now, but they don't stop fretting! Especially when I get sick."

Lily nodded, that made sense. "My mum would probably lock me in a room for the rest of my life if she knew what I was up to. I used to get sick in camp a lot, thought I woz gonna die a few times, knew a few kids who did too."

Teddy nodded and looked like he wanted to say something, but, "I get sick a lot." Was all he said.

There was another moment of silence, and neither of them noticed when they fell asleep.

Lily walked into class the next day with Teddy once again at her side. She didn't realize it then, but the second that he stood by her side in that library, he was there to stay.

The class slowly streamed in, but by the time the final bell rang everyone was in place, directly across from their mannequins. Fogsburn waited until every eye was on him, his wand held above his head, before he said in a voice that echoed, "Begin." He brought his wand down in a golden arc, trailing sparks.

Instantly, every mannequin jerked upward- with new animated life. Lily stood in front of hers, staring into it's wooden mask and dull chipped eyes, but seeing a white mask, mouth laughing, blue eyes gleaming as her own voice echoed through her head, screaming Oliver's name.

She moved, it was the first time she had ever moved that quickly, striking out with every spell she knew, not even giving the dummy time to recover. She straightened up, panting and screamed,  _ "Expelliarmus!" _

The mannequin's fake wooden wand jerked out of it's hand and flew threw the air, landing in Lily's outstretched palm. She smirked and raised her brown eyes to meet the startled blue ones of Fogsburn.

Every night following that one until they reached the age of thirteen, Lily and Teddy would map out five rooms (more carefully this time) then spend the remainder of their night in the Library, working. Training. Studying. Learning. Growing. They found countless dueling textbooks and were getting better and better squaring off against each other, both equally matched in skill. Months passed before they had a successful dueling session.

_ Teddy stood ten feet away, at the edge of a cleared space they put aside for dueling practice. He was holding a large textbook flipping through the pages hurriedly while Lily, on the opposite side, tapped her foot impatiently, "Are you bloody ready yet?" she snapped. _

" _ Almost! Just let me look up this last spell!" Teddy called. _

" _ Hurry up then! I want to get to bed at a decent hour!" _

_ Teddy snorted. "Yeah, like that's gonna happen." His eyes scanned the page for a brief moment, then he snapped the book shut, the sound echoing throughout the Library. "Ready!" _

" _ Finally!" Lily rolled her eyes in exasperation, but quickly straightened up, head held high, back straight, shoulders back, hands at sides, wand in hand. Teddy across the room mirrored her actions. _

_ Simultaneously, they inclined their heads, a smirk dancing on Lily's lips. "Scared?" Teddy taunted. Lily merely scoffed. In her head, Lily silently counted.  _ Three… Two…  **_one._ **

_ There was a flurry of movement from both sides.  _ "Infirma genu!"  _ Teddy shouted. _

_ Lily quickly spun out of the way, the Jelly-Legs Jinx hurtling past her head. She spun to a stop, wand head poised over her head and countered:  _ "Mobilicorpus!"  _ Teddy was lifted off his feet and thrown a few feet across the room. _

_ Teddy rolled to a stop on his knees pointed his wand and screamed:  _ "Rictusempra!"

_Lily didn't react fast enough, the spell hit her in the stomach and the breath whooshed out of her as the tickling spell took hold. Her peals of laughter echoed throughout the room as she doubled over laughing. She forcibly raised her wand arm and gasped,_ "Tarantallegra!" _with tears_ _forming in the corners of her eyes._

_ Teddy's legs went into violent tap-dancing spasms, sending him sprawling to the ground while his legs failed about wildly. Lily quickly countered the tickling spell while he was distracted, and just in time too. _

_ Teddy stood, poised, smirk gone from his lips. Something unspoken hung in the air, that playtime was over. Now, this was serious.  _ "Stupefy!"

_ Lily didn't even raise her wand. She took a deep breath, and conjured her magic from her body, creating a shield around her, the stunning spell rebounding. She smirked, pleased at her practice and moved, her movements swift and agile, she spun to the left and screamed," _ Accio _!"a table behind Teddy lifted a few feet off the ground and slammed into him, sending him flying. Lily rolled out of the way as the table continued in its flight and crashed into the wall. _

_ Teddy groaned and pushed himself off the floor, from his kneeled position on the floor, he pointed his wand at her and yelled, " _ Confringo!"  _ his blasting curse was slightly off target, and landed at her feet, slightly to her left, but the force of the spell still lifted her off her feet and slammed her into a bookshelf. She stood up, scattering books, pushed her hair from her eyes, and took a deep breath. _

_ They fought for what seemed like hours, both exhausted and both panting. When two of their spells meet in the air, there was an explosion of red and blue and both opponents were thrown backwards, Teddy sliding across the room and slamming into the wall, and Lily flown through the air, slamming into a bookshelf and landing hard on top of a table. _

_ Their eyes met, and simultaneously they smiled both flopping on their backs, panting. "Good game." Lily panted. _

" _ Yeah. Good game." Teddy groaned and pushed himself on his elbows. "We should get going." _

" _ Yeah." With a grunt, Lily rolled off the table and started to help Teddy clean up the library. _

As the years passed, they cleaned as they ventured deeper and deeper into the Library, and eventually it was spotless. It was a Saturday that they finally finished cleaning the library and they were thirteen years old, two years having passed since they meet, began school, and fought a small group of Death Eaters outside the library's entrance. Now they were sitting in the library, Lily in a stuffed armchair twirling her wand in her hands, and Teddy at the table next to her, surrounded by books, the completed map of Fogsburn stretched out next to him.

Both had filled out in the past two years, Lily's face losing its child-like chubbiness. Her black hair fell in front of her sharp brown eyes, long past overdue for a new haircut. She was skinny, but not knobbly as she had been as a child. She wasn't curvy per-say, but wasn't lacking either. Teddy too had lost all of his baby fat and had shot up a couple good feet in the past two years so he now towered over Lily by at least a head. He had grown more muscular but was still rather lanky and clumsy and still preferred to have his hair a shade of sandy brown- even though he was a Metamorphmagus and could change his appearance at will.

Both were at the top of their grade, and possibly several others. Both were sailing through classes, impressing teachers and parents- Lupin and Tonks had become somewhat of surrogate parents to Lily- but the only one who remained unimpressed with their performance was Fogsburn.

He would probably be more impressed if Lily didn't keep ramming heads with the man, but she couldn't help it, there was just something infuriating about the man, but at the same time when he did praise her it made her strut around the tunnels for at least a week. Lily held a somewhat of a testing respect for the man, for indeed he was a great instructor and quite wise, but also stubborn and pessimistic so even though she respected the man, she couldn't help pushing his buttons. Lily was rather reckless and rebellious and enjoyed leading Teddy, Katie, and Cora on pranking missions, such as flooding the Slytherin dormitories.

Lily and Teddy had used their secret library well and were both  _ very _ powerful wizards. Harry Potter had quickly become Lily's hero, and she trained endlessly, holding on to the hope that she could- no,  _ would  _ change the tides of the war (that they were still losing). Lily had taught Teddy how to feel his magic and now both were masters of wand-less and non-verbal magic.

_ Lily and Teddy were in the library, it was around ten o'clock at night and everyone was in their dormitories asleep. It was nearing the end of their first year at Fogsburn, and it had taken a few months but Lily had finally taught Teddy how to feel his magic. He was standing near-by, practicing expanding his shield. Lily had become so adapt at tuning into her magic she used it almost as another sense, expanding it from her body and feeling the room around her, she used it almost like an extra invisible limb. She was staring intently at a flask of pumpkin juice on the table a few feet away from her. She closed her eyes and let the magic simply… melt out of her, forming around her like an invisible shadow. She channeled it to her arm and opened her eyes, thrusting her arm toward the flask and curling her fingers in a sudden movement. Her magic wrapped itself around the flask and came back to her, somewhat like an invisible rubber band. The flask flew off the table and into her hand where she stared at it in amazement. _

The table and chair they resided at now was placed in the middle of the restricted section that they had read through thoroughly, horrified at some of the things they read but still with the knowledge that they needed to know it, if not to use it, then to protect themselves from it. They had officially finished reading the last book on the last shelf a few weeks ago, the library completely finished in it's purpose. It made Lily a little bit empty to think about it. It was odd, knowing that you were more powerful than any of your instructors. Lily was not being arrogant, it was something she knew. Ever since she had won the duel against Fogsburn.

_ She and Teddy were in dueling class earlier that year, simply lounging at their desks, having already finished their sparring fight. The class around the battled each other and Lily was resisting the urge to correct several of them in their skills. Fogsburn was at the front of the class, shouting instructions at a group of kids. When he looked over and saw them lounging about, his face took on a nasty red color. "PREWETT!" he roared. _

_ Lily jumped and quickly slid her feet off the desk, "Sir!" _

_ He stormed over to them and Lily quickly elbowed Teddy who was snoring on the desk next to her, a trail of drool connecting his face to the crook of his arm. He quickly jerked up with a snort. "And what," he seethed, "do you and Lupin think you're doing?" _

" _ Resting Sir." _

" _ You are supposed to be training NOT resting!" _

" _ But we already have!" _

" _ Until you have fought and bested every person in this class, you are NOT finished!" _

" _ But I  _ have!"

_ Fogsburn looked at her, one eyebrow raised, a smirk on his lips. "Please." He scoffed. _

" _ Ask them!" Lily gestured to the class, who had slowly stopped their dueling to watch the argument. _

_ Fogsburn made a mock bow to her, "Very well." The he said louder, speaking to the whole class, "Will anyone who has lost to Miss. Prewett please raise their hand." _

_ Slowly, looking around each other for support, the whole class raised their hands. Lily sat back and crossed her arms, trying not to look smug. Of course a few of them had beat her on several occasions, mainly Teddy, but she always won the rematches. _

_ Fogsburn's face took on an ugly color. "You're still not finished!" He barked. _

" _ What?" she protested, "I've "Bested" everyone in this room!"she sat up straight and glared at him, arms crossed. _

_ Then Fogsburn did something that made the smirk drop from Lily's face and her shoulders to tense. He smiled. "All but one." _

_ Lily's eyes widened and she dove out of the way just as Fogsburn's curse sent her chair flying across the room. _

_ Lily scrambled to her feet just as Fogsburn sent the table flying. With a wave of his wand, he quickly sent all the desks and equipment flying to the edges of the room, stacked up nicely. The way he did when there were big dueling matches. _

_ Lily grasped her wand tightly in her hand, breathing hard. She'd pushed him too far this time, everyone knew how good of a duelist Fogsburn was, and she'd argued her way into a duel with him. Lily was good, really good, thanks to the library but she wasn't sure is she was  _ this  _ good. Good enough to defeat Fogsburn? She wasn't sure. _

_ She and Fogsburn stood directly across from each other, not moving. Lily took a deep breath,  _ Nice going Prewett, you've really got on his bad side now,  _ she thought _ . Too late to back out now. You can do this. You're strong. You're powerful. You're Lily Prewett. Go… NOW!  _ Lily spun on her heel, screaming, " _ Waddiwasi!"

_ Small objects like quills, ink bottles, wads of paper, and rubber erasers began to throw themselves at Fogsburn, pelting him. He growled and tried to fend off the offending objects but raised his arm and bellowed,  _ "Ictus!"

_ Lily doubled over, clutching her stomach, it felt like someone and just punched her. She growled and thought,  _ So THAT'S how it's gonna be huh? Fine.  _ She quickly recovered and side-stepped Fogsburn's next curse She was calm and collected now. She could do this. She  _ would  _ do this.  _ "Aculeum!" _ she yelled. _

_ The stinging hex hit him in the arm and he let loose a few good swear words. She raised her wand and said,  _ "Gelata-!"

_ But Fogsburn cut her off before she could finish the Jelly-Brain Jinx by yelling,  _ "Silencio!"

_ Lily's voice suddenly died in her throat and she stood there for a few moments gasping silently while Fogsburn smirked at her from across the room.  _ Let's see how he likes non-verbal then,  _ she thought with a smirk. _

_ Lily moved so fast Fogsburn hardly had time to blink. With her wand slashing though the air like a sword, sending spell after spell, hex after hex, and jinx after jinx. _

_ Fogsburn's eye's grew wide and he tried desperately to avoid the curses thrown his way, hastily throwing up a shield charm as he stumbled back a few steps. He straightened, the amusement gone from his eyes. _

_ Lily's wand was doing something extremely odd. Whenever one of their spells would collide in the air, emitting bright sparks, her wand would vibrate like an electric charge was shooting through it. She couldn't understand it, it had nothing to do with her magic, it was just the wand. It preformed fine and didn't  _ seem  _ broken, but it was old. She made a mental note to ask Ollivander about it. She ducked as one of his curses got too close for comfort and cursed silently. _

_ They moved at the same time, both sending colorful arcs of light exploding from their wands, streaks of red, blue, purple, yellow, and pink flew through the air but never green. They moved in an almost perfect dangerous but beautiful dance, each side step and head movement having meaning. They ducked, weaved, stepped, jumped and twirled sending powerful charms, curses, and spells from their wands. _

_ Lily was driving him back, slowly but surely. She was exhausted and her legs and shoulders ached, but adrenaline was pumping through her keeping her moving. Her arms arched over her head like a dancer's, her legs spread slightly apart in a steady stance, feet planted firmly on the ground. Wielding her wand like a sword, she brought it down in a whip like motion as she felt the Silencing Sell wear off and she screamed,  _ "Expelliarmus!"

_ Fogsburn's wand was jerked from his grasp and spiraled through the air toward her; she lurched forward a couple steps and caught it in her outstretched nimble fingers. Her eyes nearly popped out of her skull at the sight of the wand in her hand. She looked up to the dead silence of the class and into the startled eyes of Professor Fogsburn as she thought,  _ I won.

She wasn't really sure what they would do with their time now. Because, as the sorting had had suggested years ago, she and Teddy had trained themselves with the skills of the other houses as well. Both were exceptional strategists, both excellent healers, cunning and convincing spies, and professional duelists. But they were far from done.

They were still struggling to keep their heads above the water in the war, recently the Death Eaters had opened another camp; this time for magical creatures. So far there was only one (Werewolves), but the Resistance knew more would follow.

The other camps really hadn't changed. Lily went back every summer to be with her mother but under the disguise of Abby, a blonde girl with blue eyes. Lily had managed to ease back into her old life as much as possible. She was still friends with the same group, but they never knew it was Lily and it killed her that she couldn't tell them. She wasn't their leader anymore either, that roll fell to Serena, who was doing a surprisingly good job. Serena even remembered the day Lily and Oliver were killed, and would spend that day with the old group, mainly in silence, but occasionally telling stories. It made Lily swell with pride, but also slump with pain.

"Oi!" Teddy's slightly deeper voice interrupted her thinking and made her jump. "You looked pretty deep in thought there."

"Jus' remembering is all." She said leaning her head back. "I'm bored."

Teddy grunted. "'ere. Look at this." He rummaged in his bag a bit before bring out a wrinkled old piece of parchment. "Dad gave it to me yesterday, but I wanted to show it to you where I knew for sure no one else will see it."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "It's a bit of parchment."

Teddy grinned. "That's what's so brilliant about it. Here, point your wand at it and say,  _ 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'" _

"Why?"

Teddy winked. "You'll find out."

"Errr….. okay?" She took the piece of parchment, and feeling rather foolish, pressed the tip of her wand to it and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

It seemed as though ink were seeping from her wand, spreading through the paper in winding lines, twisting and turning, forming doors, hallways, stairs, and rooms. Words began to spiral out of her wand and she squealed, "Teddy! This  _ couldn't-"  _ but there was the answer. In neat cursive handwriting read:

_ Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs _

_ Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers _

_ are proud to present _

_ THE MARAUDER'S MAP _

"Oh my God! Teddy,  _ where the hell  _ did you get this?" Lily was nearly screaming, eyes roaming over the map, drinking in every detail about the school she heard so much about and loved so much, even if she'd never stepped foot in it. She studied the top floor and worked her way down.

Teddy laughed at her reaction. "My Dad gave it to me, said that even though we weren't in Hogwarts I should still have it."

"Oh my God,  _ Teddy!  _ This is  _ amazing!  _ Look, look! There's Peeves! He's still there!"

"Yeah, yeah Flower. It's great, now lemme do my homework, I've seen that thing a million times."

Lily's eyes continued to roam over the map, there was the  _ real  _ Gryffindor common room, the Great Hall, the kitchens (Surprisingly with a few house elves still roaming around) the Library, the Quidditch pitch…

Lily froze. Her breath sped up and she gripped the edges of the map so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Teddy!" She yelled, grabbing his arm.

Teddy jumped so violently that he overturned his ink bottle. "Christ woman!  _ What?"  _ Teddy took one look at her face and instantly his face dropped the annoyed look and it changed to concern. "Lily? What's wrong?"

"Teddy," she said, her face white and voice shaking, "why are our names on the map of Hogwarts?"

 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published Apr. 21, 2012  
> Never Beta'd  
> (Please keep in mind I was 15, so sorry for my shitty writing)  
> If anyone is intrested, even in seeing an updated/edited version please let me know, it might help influence whether or not I decide to continue.


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